Black ToeShoes and Rabid Fandom
by Lost and Never Found
Summary: When out investigating a strange light out in the woods, two girls, one a rabid FMA fangirl and the other a skeptical disbeliever, have one encounter that they will never forget.
1. Chapter 1

**Wandering Hitokiri: (Walks out and looks around) Hi there people! For all of you who remember me from my story 'What One May Never See', you may know of me and my perverse sense of humor. The illustrious ****Lost and Never Found ****contacted me and wanted to know if I wanted to do a joint fanfic. That is what this is right now.**

**LNF: Ello! (spreads the skirt of her medieval-style dress in a curtsy) **

**Ed: (Rolls eyes) Pfft, yeah right. That's what you think. All you two are doing right now is acting like a couple of weirdos.**

**Wandering Hitokirir: -.-; Ignore him. He's just mad because I pulled him out of an impending fight with Colonel Mustang, so he didn't get to kick flame-boy's butt.**

**Ed: Why do I have to do this again?**

**Wandering Hitokiri: Because if you don't I'll pass out embarrassing baby pictures of you to Mustang, Envy, Scar, and pretty much anyone else.**

**Ed: Where the hell would you get them anyways? Any baby photos that I may have had were burned up years ago.**

**Wandering Hitokiri: That's what you think. (Pulls a bunch of pictures out of her hakama pocket. Ed walks over and looks at them before going white.)**

**Ed: Where the hell did you get these?!**

**Wandering Hitokiri: That's a secret. Now be nice.**

**Ed: (Glares at Wandering before he smirks) Alright everyone! Take note that neither Wandering Hitokiri nor Lost and Never Found own me or anyone else from 'Fullmetal Alchemist'!**

**Wandering Hitokiri: (Twitches) Edward Elric, you are DEAD! (Chases after a certain alchemist)**

**Al: (Walks up nervously) Umm… please ignore Nii-san and Wandering Hitokiri. They don't really get along that well. Enjoy the story though! (Bows and walks off)**

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"_Voldemort_? Are you _serious_?"

The shriek from the taller of the two teenage girls walking down the street could be heard for blocks. Her short friend barely winced, used to such outbursts.

"Yes, I'm quite serious, though now deaf." she said dryly. "Come on; it took them decades to finally kill the guy, and the only reason the succeeded was because he set up his own doom by killing Harry's parents and shattering his own soul so completely. You gotta admit, Crys, that's way powerful."

Crystal, better known to her friends as Crys, snorted. "Bullshit. Envy could kick him to next week and back."

Rolling her eyes, the shorter girl sighed. "Not Fullmetal Alchemist again."

"Yes, Taylor, again. It is freakin' awesome and you know it!"

"No, no it really isn't."

"Oh, come on! Have you ever watched it?"

Taylor sighed. "Yes, Crys, I have. Remember? You sat me down and made me watch the first six episodes."

Crystal now sighed, her eyes starry as she slipped into one of her eager

fangirl moods. "Mustang, Envy, and Ed... Possible the cutest guys ever!"

Simply rolling her eyes, Taylor said nothing. Barely five foot even, she was a petite girl with wavy red hair that went just past her shoulder blades and brilliant green eyes. Her oval face was highlighted by bangs that just crested her dark eyebrows, accenting her pale skin. Dressed simply in cotton pants, a loose-fitting white button-up shirt, and white sandals, she carried a black bag over her shoulder, a pink ribbon from a toe-shoe sticking out of the zipper.

The exact opposite was Crystal. Easily five foot ten, she towered over her friend and most everyone else outside of her family. Dark, brown hair, in contrast to Taylor's, was almost painfully straight, going clear down to her waist, and her eyes were the perfect shade of storm gray-blue. A heart-shaped face was also framed by bangs, though her skin was tanned from time spent in the sun. Unlike her friend, she was in black jeans, Converse sneakers, and a black message t-shirt with, "I'd rather be eating slugs now than dealing with you" written on it with green letters. No bag was hanging off of her shoulders; she was just walking Taylor home from dance lessons at the request of Cal, Taylor's older brother/legal guardian.

"Hey, what's the plan for tomorrow?" Crystal asked curiously, turning around to walk backwards so she could watch Taylor's face as they talked.

The red-head shrugged. "I have the usually practice time in the morning and evening, but otherwise I'm free. Want to go see a movie or something?"

"Sweet!" Crystal squealed. "Stardust just came out, and the guy playing Tristan looks so dreamy! I mean, nothing against Mustang or Ed of coOURSE!"

The last part of the sentence came out as a squeal as she tripped over a tree branch in the middle of the sidewalk. Taylor could only stand there and laugh as she watched her friend struggle to regain her balance before falling flat on her butt.

"Serve's you right for not watching where you're going." she jibed.

Crystal sniffed as she stood up and dusted herself off. "I totally meant to do that."

"Sure you did. And I saw a pig fly over the house this morning."

Ducking as the taller girl swiped at her, Taylor hurried a few steps ahead of her friend.

"Get back here!" Crystal shouted as she attempted to go after Taylor, only to have the girl expertly lash out with her left leg and knock Crystal's feet out from underneath her. The taller girl landed back on the concrete with a loud 'thump', and Taylor grinned cheekily at her fallen friend.

"Walk much or just read about it?" she joked, her emerald eyes flashing with good humor. Crystal sighed and rolled her eyes in response, obviously not amused.

"Yeah yeah yeah, mock the person with the sore butt," she grumbled as she stood up, rubbing at her bruised backside ruefully. "You should use your powers for good instead of evil; like not knocking me over for example."

Taylor smirked in response. "You might want to try taking dance lessons then. Who knows; maybe you'll be able to walk without tripping over your feet."

"Says you, short stuff."

"I'd rather be short and graceful than tall and clumsy, Crys."

"Are you saying that I'm clumsy?!"

"Yes."

"I am not!!"

"Yes you are!"

Crystal stopped dead in her tracks and looked down at her friend before she gave the smaller girl an unholy smirk in response.

"Taylor, you're shorter than Ed."

Taylor groaned and rolled her eyes. "Crys, he's not real."

"So? You're still shorter than him."

The sound of classical music playing caught both of them by surprise. Reaching into her bag and digging around, Taylor finally pulled out her cell phone and flipped it open to answer it. "Hey Cal. We're on our way... Only a couple of blocks... No, I didn't..."

The teenager froze at her older sibling's next comment, moss-colored eyes narrowing dangerously. Suddenly rolling her eyes, Taylor said scathingly, "Oh, because I so do that on a regular basis! One time, bro, once!" Hanging up the phone before he could respond, she muttered, "Jerk."

Blinking in confusion, Crystal asked, "What was that about?"

"He asked me if I lost my arm again." Meaning her right arm, a prosthetic limb that she had gained after she had lost her arm in the car accident that had killed her parents two years before.

Promptly, the brunette burst into giggles. It was by now an infamous instance. During a dance recital two years ago, when Taylor was still adjusting to the hunk of plastic, one of the straps of her harness had broke and her arm went flying across the stage. Everyone but Taylor thought it was hilarious.

Sniffing in distaste, Taylor walked away in a huff. After managing to control her laughter, Crystal caught up. "Ah, come on Taylor. It is pretty funny in hindsight."

"Speak for yourself." she muttered sourly. "That wouldn't have happened if I had checked the straps before the recital. Hell, it wouldn't have happened at all if I didn't have this arm."

Crystal gave her friend a worried look as she walked besides her. It didn't happen often, but sometimes Taylor would get irritated with the fact that she no longer had her original right arm. Most of the time Cal was the reason behind her uncharacteristic brooding, but a few months ago a boy that Taylor had liked since 6th grade had told her that he didn't date cripples when she had asked him to go with her to the school dance.

Oddly enough, the next day the same boy was found blindfolded and stuffed in his hall locker with duct tape over his mouth and 'jackass' written on his forehead in neon pink highlighter. Even more strange was the fact that Crystal had been fifteen minutes late to her class after lunch, which was around the time that the boy had been 'escorted' into his locker. Strange...

Sighing and shaking off her depression for a moment, Taylor said, "There's my house. I'll call you later and we'll meet up for the movie, kay?"

Without waiting for a good-bye from Crystal, she hurried up the walkway and through the door. She didn't really feel like talking anymore.

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After taking Taylor home, Crystal went back to her house, yelled at her little brothers to get out of her room, and did homework until dinner. After dinner, she then engaged in what was known at her house as 'instant ten-year-old death' with her twin brothers... Let's just say that it consisted of duct tape and a lot of blankets. (Use your imaginations as to what she did with them.) It was well after eleven when the teenager was just about to get ready to go to bed before she glanced outside at the storm that was beginning to rage and caught sight of strange flashes of electric blue light shining thought the trees. A thoughtful frown crossed Crystal's face before she started to get dressed again and pack some stuff into her backpack.

Whatever it was going on out there, she was going to find out what was happening.

-----------------------------------

That night, Taylor lay in bed, her pillow and her quilt over her head to try and block out the noise of the approaching thunderstorm outside. Even when the wind was hardly blowing, the elm tree just beside the house scratched her window. In storms like these, it was all the worse and sound like the tree branch was actually inside her room. "'Oh no, we can't cut it down.'" Taylor mocked in annoyance. "'That tree is older than us...' Cal, I am so killing you in the morning."

When the branch began to knock against the glass even louder, she growled and threw off the quilt and pillow to try and find her portable CD player; blocking the tree's noise with music seemed like the best option right now. However, she stopped when she actually looked out the window.

For several seconds Taylor stood there in her nightgown and stared out the window at the figure hanging perilously from a large branch protruding from the tree trunk, blinking stupidly in complete and total surprise.

"Ookaaaayyy... I think I'm just going to go back to bed and pretend I didn't see that," she muttered, only to be stopped as the person reached out and rapped sharply at the glass.

"Taylor, let me in!" a familiar voice whined over the noise of the storm. "I'm getting soaked!"

A visible twitch became present in Taylor's left eye as she strode over to her bedroom window and flung it open to admit a dripping wet Crystal. The teenager cast a jaundiced look at her best friend as the other girl stood in the middle of her dark bedroom dripping water onto the carpet.

"Crys, what on earth possessed you to come over in the middle of the night?" Taylor asked seriously, a frown making its way across her face.

Crystal gave her friend an impish grin as she stood up and wiped the rain off her face.

"There's something going on in the woods," she announced. "I saw this weird bluish light coming through the trees, but I'm not sure what it is."

Taylor groaned and rolled her eyes. "Crystal, you got me out of bed at almost midnight just because you saw a funny colored light? You have _got_ to be kidding me."

"Why don't we go and check it out?"

"Wait, what?" Taylor stared at her friend like she had lost her mind. "Why would we even _want_ to go out there? It's pouring, and Cal will kill me if he finds out that I snuck out without him knowing in the middle of the night."

"Then don't let him catch you. Remember, it's only illegal if you get caught."

Taylor shot Crystal a supremely dirty look as she sat down on her bed, her empty nightgown sleeve flapping slightly with her movements.

"You're not going to leave until I say yes, are you?"

"You got it."

"... I hate you."

"Just be dressed in five minutes."

Taylor gave an aggravated sigh as she went over to her dresser and pulled out a pair of jeans, sweater, long-sleeved shirt, and socks out before she began to get dressed. "We are going to get in so much trouble for this," she pointed out as she buckled her harness over the camisole she wore under her shirt and strapped her arm on before jerking her shirt on over her head.

"We'll only be in trouble if we get caught," Crystal reminded before she gave

a nonchalant shrug. "Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"

"Hmm… let me think. We could get attacked by a rabid bear and have our bodies found horribly mauled by a search party sent out to find us."

"You are way too pessimistic sometimes."

"Only when you decide to act insane."

Crystal just sighed while Taylor pulled on a jean jacket before she grabbed her backpack from earlier and a flashlight. To cure her guilty conscious in case Cal unexpectedly came into her room to check on her, she quickly scribbled a note saying that she had gone over to Crystal's house and would call later, leaving it on her desk in plain view.

"Okay, c'mon, let's go do this and get it over with before I change my mind," the girl muttered. Crystal failed to repress a grin as she went back out into the elements for a second time and helped Taylor down the tree.

Without a word, the two girls flicked on their flashlights and entered the forest behind their houses.

-----------------------------------

Twenty minutes later, and having found nothing, Taylor's mood had taken a turn for the worse. "Remind me why I listened to you again," she grumbled moodily as she swung the beam of light around, illuminating countless tree trunks and plants scattered about the forest floor.

Crystal just sighed and shook her head in response. "That's because you thrive on adventure and you'd be bored without me."

"Yeah right. If it weren't for you and your sense of 'adventure', I'd be at home and asleep by now."

It was just then that Taylor's flashlight fell onto the outer edge of a circle carved into the earth within a decent sized clearing. Both girls let out a startled gasp before they swept their flashlights around the clearing, illuminating a large circle carved deep into the dirt that took up the entire clearing with weird runes written inside of it.

"Holy cow," Crystal breathed in awe as she knelt down and examined the outside of the circle closely. "This looks almost like something out of Fullmetal Alchemist."

"Yeah, well I don't think that they did this in FMA," Taylor stammered nervously as she backed away from something. Crystal turned around to see what had unnerved her friend, and bit back a startled curse when she saw what looked like some sort of stone alter covered in dead animals standing at the very edge of the clearing.

"Is that...?" she muttered hesitantly and Taylor nodded empathetically in agreement.

"Some sort of Satan worship?" she suggested nervously, indicating at the heap of dead pets and other small animals. "I know Cal mentioned a few days ago about how a bunch of dogs and cats in the neighborhood have gone missing, but he thought it was probably a pack of coyotes running around. But this… this is just sickening. There is _no way_ a bunch of coyotes did something like this."

Crystal, who was at a loss for words for once in her life, merely made a strangled sort of noise as she stared in utter horror at the corpses.

"I think we should go home now," she suggested. "Calling the police would probably be a good idea too."

Taylor nodded in agreement, and just as they were about to turn around and leave, a harsh laugh rang out from behind them.

"Well lookie here. Seems like I won't need another few dozen sacrifices if I have you two. This'll save me a great deal of time and effort."

Taylor whirled around to face the speaker, a grubby man in his early twenties with a nasty smirk etched across his face.

"You better not try anything! Our parents are right behind us!" she spat out defiantly. However, Taylor unfortunately wasn't the best liar in the world, and the man obviously knew it. He gave both of the girls a sickening smile as he stepped forward towards the alter and ran a hand lovingly down the jaw line of a dog that had obviously been dead for a long time. Both Crystal and Taylor took several steps backwards, their eyes widening in disgust as they tried to put as much distance between them and the man as possible without bolting. The young man let out another mocking laugh as he watched them in obvious interest.

"Oh really? Then why aren't they right here with you? I can assume that most loving parents would be here with their children if they were out walking in the woods at night," he stated, brown eyes shining with a mad light underneath dirty blonde bangs. "Unless that is of course their daughters snuck out for a little romp outside in the storm."

Taylor looked like she was about to throw up while Crystal's grip on her left arm tightened. Neither of them were able to think clearly as they stared at the man before them in horror.

"What do you want?" Taylor finally ground out, her expression defiant. The man smirked at them as he crossed both arms over his chest.

"Why what everyone wants of course," he declared proudly. "I want money, fame, women, and most of all… _Power_! All I need to do is have a potent enough sacrifice and I will receive all of that from the divine _Irikuchi_!"

Taylor and Crystal stared at the man for several seconds in complete and total disbelief before they even dared to respond.

"Ookaaaayyy... " Taylor muttered slowly as she glanced at Crystal out of the corner of her eye, indicating silently that when she gave the signal that they should make a run for it. "Well, as much as we would _love_ to help in your summoning Ikirichi or whoever, we really need to get home. Bye!"

With that parting statement, both girls took off across the clearing like the hounds of hell were after them. The man waited until the two teens had reached the middle of the clearing, and consequently the center of the circle, before he knelt down by the outer edge.

"Power and fame will be mine!" he declared with a sick grin as he pressed his hands on the edge of the circle, and the clearing became filled with blue light.

-----------------------------------

**Umm… FYI, Irikuchi means Gate in Japanese. So yeah, senoir psychopath pterry much worships the Gate. What a nutball. **

**-.-;**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ithil: LNF, what are you doing? Shouldn't you be working on your Digimon story?**

LNF: (pouts) I just updated! Surely the next chapter can wait? (gives Ithil the puppy dog eyes)

Ithil: (sighs, but gives in)

LNF: (squeals and hugs her muse)

Wandering Hitokiri: (sweatdrops)

Al: Neither Wandering Hitokiri or Lost and Never Found own me, Ed, or any of the rest of Fullmetal Alchemist. However, Crystal and Taylor are their creations.

Groaning as she finally came too, Crystal sat up and looked around. Somehow, they had gone from a clearing in the woods, to the middle of an alley. Not to mention the fact that it was still raining, only not as hard as it had been beforehand. Rubbing the back of her head as she felt a lump forming, she looked around for Taylor. It took a few scans over the immediate area in order for her to recognize her friend's hidden form in the shadows of the alley. The red-head was still unconscious, and didn't look comfortable at all.

Crystal frowned as she crawled over to her unmoving friend and poked her in the shoulder experimentally. Taylor didn't so much as twitch, and Crystal winced when she noticed the good-sized knot forming on the back of the shorter girl's head. If she had to judge by appearances, Taylor wasn't going to be waking up anytime soon.

"Great, just great," the teenager muttered as she sat down next to her friend's limp form. "I have absolutely no idea where the hell we are, and whether or not that psychopath from the woods is going to show up and ritualistically murder us. C'mon, Taylor, please wake up soon."

It seemed as though some twisted divine being was plotting against her, because Crystal soon heard the sounds of fighting, and arguing, coming towards her. The sixteen-year old spat out a loud curse in German as she struggled to hoist Taylor onto her back. When that didn't work, Crystal just settled for throwing Taylor's left arm over her shoulder, and wrapping her right arm underneath the smaller girl's arms to support her dead weight before she struggled into a shadowy alcove to serve as a better hiding place. Barely a few seconds after she and Taylor had hidden, the teenager heard three incredibly familiar voices coming her way.

"C'mon, pipsqueak! Surely you can do better than that!"

"DON'T CALL ME SMALL!!! I'LL RIP OFF YOUR ARMS AND STICK THEM ON YOUR HEAD!!"

"Brother, look out!"

Crystal blinked in surprise as she huddled up next to the brick wall, her mind whirling about at a hundred miles an hour. It sounded almost as though someone was reenacting something from Fullmetal Alchemist, and whoever was doing it was doing a damn good job. Crystal was just about to step out from her hiding place when she saw a familiar blonde form go flying past the alcove and collide painfully with a metal dumpster. The teenager stood stock still in shock for a moment before she laid Taylor out on the ground and rushed out into the fight that was taking place.

-----------------------------------

Taylor gave a low groan as she slowly came to, the rain pattering down steadily on her face. The girl sat up and hissed in pain as the back of her head began to throb, waves of throbbing agony washing over her as she tried to figure out what on earth was going on. She noticed that she was in an alcove of some sort in an alley, although this did very little to tell her as to where she was.

Just as Taylor was about to start calling out for Crystal, the sounds of a scuffle broke out in the alley in front of her, arousing the teen's curiosity. The sixteen-year old frowned as she stood up and headed over to the alley, only to freak out when she saw Crystal go flying past her and collide into someone else who was trying to stand up.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're playing at?!" she demanded as she stormed out into the fray, only to stop cold at the sight that met her eyes. A man that easily met Crystal's descriptions of Envy was holding someone wearing a full suit of armor in what had to be a painful headlock. Taylor blinked, rubbed at her eyes, and then blinked again as she stared incredulously at the scene before her.

"What the hell?" she said, arching a pale reddish eyebrow in question. "I'm seeing a palm tree wearing a miniskirt and tank-top; how the hell did I end up in Home Depot and why didn't anyone tell me that it was Halloween?!"

The green-haired man looked up at her and glowered before he easily threw the struggling person in armor into a wall and stomped over to her, violet eyes flashing darkly in obvious rage.

_'Crap. Next time, Taylor, think before you open your mouth and manage to put your foot in it!' _the teenager realized as she slowly began to back away, forgetting there was nothing but a wall behind her. She froze when she hit the wall, and then thought quickly.

Running straight towards her attacker, she wasn't surprised when he spread his legs and braced himself for her attack. At the last moment, she ducked down and slid in between his legs, coming to a stop beside the man in the armor as the Envy look-alike stood still, stunned. She grinned at him weakly, then yelled in the vague direction of Crystal, "Hey Crys, you alright?" as she struggled to stand up. Times like these, having plastic for an arm sucked since she couldn't put any weight on it.

She was surprised, therefore, when a metal hand wrapped around her good arm and helped her stand up.

"Thanks." she said in surprise.

"You're welcome," he said back.

_'Is it just me,' _she thought_, 'or does he sound like a young boy?'_ However, she was distracted from further thoughts by Crystal yelling, "Taylor, look out!"

Crystal was glad that Envy hadn't managed to get his hands on her small friend, however, she wasn't so happy to notice that Taylor got distracted talking to Al when the homunculus was still a threat. Afore-mentioned human-want-a-be was currently stalking over to her, cracking his knuckles threateningly. As he reached out to grab Taylor in a headlock, she ignored the body underneath her and scrambled to her feet, crying out just in time.

Eyes wide, Taylor whirled around and, bracing herself on Al, kicked out, belatedly remembering not to point her toe like her training normally demanded. She struck Envy directly in the stomach, sending him sprawling backwards. However, he quickly stood up straight again, cracking his neck as if nothing had happened.

"Holy shit..." she mumbled, her eyes growing wide as she stared at the being before her in astonishment. When she kicked a normal person like that, she always knocked the air out of them, leaving them helpless long enough for her to get away. This guy hardly looked bothered. When he reached for her again, she placed her hands on his shoulders and jumped over his head easily in a billy-goat jump, landing behind him lightly on her feet. She then ran and tried to hide behind Crystal. A pacifist by nature, it went against Taylor's temperament and moral code to fight.

"Scaredy cat." Crystal said over her shoulder affectionately. What few fighting techniques Taylor knew, she had taught her. That didn't mean Taylor wouldn't immediately turn to Crystal every time a fight seemed immanent.

"Scared or sane? I don't think there's a difference right now." Taylor said shakily. "Crystal, what the hell's going on?"

Crystal paused, unsure how to answer. "I think we're in a bad fanfiction plot, honestly." she finally admitted.

"Bad what plot?"

"Gah, Taylor, don't you know anything?"

"Hey, unless it involves music-."

"-you don't care, I know I know." Crystal said impatiently. She was kept from answering by the approach of Envy.

"Well well well. Looks like the Fullmetal Pipsqueak needs protection from a couple of girls." he jeered.

Taylor muttered only loud enough for Crystal to hear, "Somehow, I don't think the shim means me when shim says  
'pipsqueak'..."

Crystal couldn't help snorting as Taylor combined "she" and "him" to refer to Envy. However, both comments were interrupted by a loud voice from behind them.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING PIPSQUEAK?!"

Taylor turned around to look at the speaker, a blonde-haired boy with odd golden eyes that were currently blazing with rage standing right behind her and Crystal. He was a couple inches taller than her, and was wearing a long red trench coat over black pants and a black jacket.

"Umm… it might be me, since I'm kind of five nothing," she pointed out with a slight hint of sarcasm in her voice. "But I doubt it since I don't know who Fullmetal is, and it definitely isn't me."

The boy seemed surprised to see Taylor, much less hear her response. A harsh laugh interrupted the oncoming question, and the girl glanced over at Envy, who was smirking at the three teenagers in front of him.

"Well, this is a surprise," he stated mockingly. "It looks like the brat's finally found a girl shorter than him. Although too bad it's a twelve-year old."

Taylor's right eye developed an irritated twitch as she glared daggers at Envy, her forest green eyes cold. She'd had people tease her about her height before, and all she did was laugh and shrug it off. But the twelve-year old comment went over the imaginary line in the sand that she had drawn, and now she was angry.

"I'm sorry, what was that, you stupid faggot?" she snarled acidly. "You want to get a black eye?"

This time, Envy was the one who twitched, and he looked like he would have gladly ripped apart the small girl standing in front of him.

"Watch your mouth, wench," he spat. "Otherwise someone just might decide to cut it-"

WHAM!!

Taylor smirked at the fallen homunculus as she dusted her hand off on her jacket, eyeing the metal trash can lid that she had thrown at his face appraisingly.

"That's gonna hurt when he wakes up tomorrow," she quipped as she grinned at Crystal, who was currently gaping at her. "The opportunity presented itself, and I took it. Besides, at least it made the he/she shut up."

"Taylor, I don't think that's gonna keep him down for-" Crystal began, only to fall short as she stared behind her friend in horror. Taylor whipped around in time to see Envy remove the trash can lid from his face and stand up, murder shining in his eyes.

"You're going to pay for that, you little bitch!" he snarled. Taylor blinked in surprise as she shook slightly. This had not been part of her plan.

"What is this guy on?!" she muttered shakily as she stared at the approaching homunculus. "Is he one of those PCP junkies or something? Because that should have at least given him one hell of a headache, not let him get up and come after us!"

Envy suddenly shot forward and grabbed Taylor by her right arm, squeezing hard enough to cause her pain… if it hadn't been her plastic arm that is. The teen smirked at him knowingly.

"Wrong arm, jackass!" she spat as she drove her knee up into Envy's groin, causing the homunculi's eyes to bug out in pain before he released her and fell to the ground. "Looks like you picked the wrong day to forget to wear your cup!"

Crystal stared at her friend in astonishment before she grabbed the front of her jacket and took off running, dragging the taller girl behind her.

"Taylor, what are you doing?" she gasped out just as Ed and Al ran up from behind them. The two brothers were able to keep up with the fast pace that Taylor was currently setting, and they didn't even seem to be out of breath.

"We are getting the hell out of here and calling the cops!" Taylor responded. "Sorry, but I've had enough excitement for one day with that weirdo devil worshiper and that freak back there!"

"What devil worshiper?" Ed asked suddenly, drawing Taylor's attention to him and noticing for the first time that he and Al had joined up with them.

"Some nutjob weirdo that showed up in the forest behind where we live," Taylor explained as they shot around a corner and out into the main street. "Anyways, what the hell were you and your dad doing trying to fight that guy? That's a job for the cops, not a couple of citizens trying to perform a good deed!"

"Al is not my dad!!" Ed shot back angrily. "He's my little brother!"

"Oh, sorry."

Crystal grinned in spite of herself; this was definitely turning into an interesting situation. Suddenly, there was a loud cry of rage from the alley that they had just left, and one very pissed off homunculus raced out after them.

"Aw crap!" Crystal yelped as she glanced behind her. "Taylor, you might want to start running faster!"

Taylor, at this comment, glanced behind her, and swore when she tripped over a piece of pavement sticking up. The teenager lay sprawled face down onto the cobblestone street as she struggled to get to her feet, only to have Al dart back and grab her, breaking into a fast run while carrying the startled girl in his arms. After several minutes of running flat out, and winding up in an area of town that neither Taylor nor Crystal recognized, they finally stopped, and Al set Taylor down.

"Thank you," she muttered as she glanced over at Crystal, who seemed to have a hard time not laughing. "Crys, what's so funny?"

"Nothing," the other girl stated as she straightened up and waved a hand dismissively. "Just a thought, that's all."

"Right."

Ed arched an eyebrow as he watched the two girls in front of him curiously.

Taylor sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. "This is just so strange..." She noticed her right arm was hanging crookedly and scowled. "Oh hell..." Gripping it with her good hand, she felt along the cords that served as the pulley system that made the arm bend, and found the loose cord and broken link, making her sigh in relief. "I took some minor damage back there, but I should be alright." That struck her memory. "By the way, Crys, what's fanfiction? You mentioned it back there..." Taylor trailed off when she saw that her friend was gazing starry-eyed at the blonde boy. She snapped her fingers in front of her face, "You-who? Crystal?" When she still got no response, she sighed and slapped her friend upside the head, yelling in her ear, "Crystal Schraff!"

Crystal was snapped from her fangirl coma by Taylor's actions. She didn't retaliate, but said to the teenage boy, "Are you really Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist?"

Edward swelled up in pride, but before he could answer, Taylor rolled her eyes and groaned, "Not this again! Crys, he ain't real! Not him, not Envy, not Horse-boy, none of them!"

Ignoring Edward's laughter at her nickname for the colonel, Crystal said angrily, "Don't make fun of Roy-kun! He's so brave, and righteous, and-."

"Fictional." Taylor snickered as Crystal swelled up like a toad.

Al decided to stop the fight before it happened, "I don't believe either of you have introduced yourselves."

Crystal blinked, "Oh, right. I'm Crystal Schraff."

Taylor gave him a mock salute, "Taylor Logan."

"Logan?" Edward snickered. "You do realize those are both boy names?"

Taylor snapped back, "You do realize that Taylor was originally a girl name?" The two short teenagers glared at each other, but the redhead's temper proved to be fiercer, since Edward was the one who looked away. Grinning smugly, Taylor said to Crystal, "So what's fanfiction?"

"What was with you back there?" Crystal sidetracked. "I've never seen you loose your temper like that."

"I'm a redhead. I'm allowed to loose my temper more often."

When Crystal glared at her, she sighed. "Do you remember what happened when I was twelve?" Crystal winced. She did, now that she thought about it. That's when the accident was. "I'm a little sensitive about it, that's all. Now quite stalling. What's fanfiction?"

"What I want to know is what's up with you two." Edward drawled. "You seem to be under the impression I'm not real."

Taylor snorted. "Who are you, then?" Her question was directed at both Ed and the suit of armor that seemed to keep helping her.

"The Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric. This is my brother, Alphonse."

Both teenage girls blinked, before Crystal squealed excitedly, "Oh, I-knew-it-I-knew-it-I-knew-it-I-knew-it!"

Rolling her eyes, the short girl said sarcastically, "Down girl. These guys are obviously messing with you."

"No, no they aren't! I told you earlier, remember? Bad fanfiction plot!"

"Crystal, I don't know what fanfiction is!" Taylor was beyond exasperated with her friend's hedging around her explanation of that word.

"You've been deprived," Crystal stated simply. Taylor scowled and held up her left hand threateningly.

"Crystal, tell me what the hell you're babbling about before I smack you into another time zone," she threatened seriously. "You know I'm not afraid to hit you."

"But can you catch me is the question?" Crystal shot back, only to be silenced by Taylor's glare. "Alright already, there's no need to unleash the killer stare of doom on me. A fanfiction is where you take someone else's characters from a book or a movie or the like and write a story about them. There are good ones, and there are bad ones."

"So? What does that have to do with us and everything that's happened in the past few hours?"

"Ummm… I plead the Fifth?"

"Ha hah, not funny," Taylor remarked dourly. "I want the truth, Crys. What do these fanfiction things have to do with us?"

"Well, you see, there's this really good author on a website called and she wrote a story called 'What One May Never See' and a girl named Annora falls into the FMA world and-"

"Crystal, there is no such thing as alchemy!" Taylor ground out angrily, her green eyes flashing darkly with anger. "Right now, we are in the real world, facing real problems, not some romantic daydream!! What we need to do is find a pay phone, or better yet, a police station, and call home! Cal's probably worried out of his mind right now, and I've had to deal with enough weirdness in the past few hours to last me a lifetime!"

Crystal blinked in surprise before she gave a thoughtful frown. She opened her mouth to respond, only to have Ed beat her to the punch.

"What do you mean alchemy doesn't exist?" he demanded. "Are you delusional, or are you just living in a perpetual state of denial?"

"No, I'm being realistic," Taylor snapped. "I'm cold, I'm wet, and I'm tired. I want to go home, and I have no idea where the hell we are, so I'm just a tad bit cranky right now."

"More like bitchy," Ed muttered scathingly, only to have Al swat him upside the head.

"Brother!" he said reprovingly. "That's not very nice!"

"She deserved it," Ed said sulkily as Taylor glared at him.

"Well sorry if I offended you," she shot back. "I didn't realize that your ego was more important than my friend's and my well-being."

"Oh be quiet, little girl!"

Taylor stopped cold and glowered at Ed for a few moments before a cold smirk crossed her face.

"Hey, I'm sixteen. I still have time to grow, unlike you," she jeered. Ed went an interesting shade of red as he exploded.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MICROSCOPIC PIPSQUEAK THAT CAN BE SQUASHED BY A PROTOZOA?!!" he raged, taking a furious swipe at Taylor. The girl easily managed to dodge it, and backed up out of range. Ed was just about to lunge for her when Al grabbed his jacket collar and held him back.

"Brother, stop it!" he insisted worriedly. "Can't you see that she's hurt?"

Ed froze in Al's grasp, and his gaze locked directly onto Taylor's limp and unmoving right arm. Golden eyes widened in understanding as he fell silent for a few moments.

"Did you break your arm?" he asked in surprise, and Taylor glanced down at her arm before realizing what he was talking about.

"No, I'm fine," she muttered as she shifted so that her arm was no longer in their line of view. Ed raised an eyebrow skeptically as Al let him go, and he walked over in front of her.

"Look, if your arm's broken, then we'll have to take you to a doctor to get it taken care of," he pointed out seriously. Taylor scowled at the boy as she took a step backwards and placed her hand on the casing of her plastic upper arm that was currently covered by her jacket sleeve.

"My arm's not broken, and it'll take more than a doctor to fix what happened to it," she said angrily. Ed frowned as he held out his hand to her.

"Then why is it hanging limp like that?" he demanded sternly. Taylor froze, but before Crystal could say anything, she clapped her good arm over her mouth.

"Not a word." she growled warningly. "Not one friggin' word!" Crystal gave her a dirty look, but nodded her head. Taylor slowly removed her hand.

Before Crystal had a chance to tell Edward anyway, a by-now familiar voice jeered down from a nearby rooftop. "Did you really think you could get away from me that easily?"

Taylor covered her eyes with her hand, "Oh shit."

Crystal nodded in agreement, "No joke."

**LNF: Which would be worse? Running into Envy in an alley, or on a rooftop?**

Wandering Hitokiri: Rooftop. If you're at street level, you can see up his skirt.

Both: (shudder)

**Wandering Hitokiri: I need acid so I can burn that image out of my mind. I have enough problems sleeping at night as it is.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Wandering Hitokiri: Wow, we've got the third chapter done already. I'm amazed. **

**Ed: (Scowls) And you haven't updated your other story yet, why? **

**Wandering Hitokiri: I don't see what that has to do with anything. **

**Ed: It's because you're procrastinating. **

**Wandering Hitokiri: (Smirks knowingly at the alchemist) Either that, or you just desperately want to see your dear sweet Annora. **

**Ed: (Turns bright red) Y-you! I'll kill you!! **

**Wandering Hitokiri: (Grins impishly) Bring it on, shorty. (Places her hand on the katana at her waist.) **

**Ed: WHO ARE YOU CALLIN' A PINT-SIZED MIDGET BEANSPROUT THAT'S SO SHORT THAT HE CAN HIDE BEHIND A GRAIN OF SAND?!! **

**Al: (Sighs as she watch the two go at it) Brother, that's not what she said... **

**Ithil: Neither Wandering Hitokiri or Lost and Never Found own Al, Ed, or any of the rest of Fullmetal Alchemist. However, Crystal, Cal, and Taylor are their creations.**

"This guy is like a bad smell." Taylor complained. "Once you get it in your nose, you can't get away from it."

"Dude, have you gotten a whiff of him?" Crystal said, wrinkling her nose. "He smells something awful. I think my anime-crush on him just died a cold, uncaring death."

"One down, two to go." Taylor said dryly.

Edward couldn't help staring at the two girls. These two were being stared down by a murderous homunculus (AN: Hey, that rhymes!), yet they were cracking jokes. He was shaken out of his confused daze by Envy yelling, "Hey shortstack, can you see me from down there?"

He swelled up, but before Edward could explode, Taylor grabbed him around the shoulders and clapped her hand over his mouth, hissing in his ear, "Control your temper. He wants you to attack first, it gives him the advantage."

Somewhere in Edward's unconscious, it registered that a girl, a girl that was both shorter than him and not Winry, was pressed up against him. However, his guy brain took a backseat to his logic for the time being.

"So what do you suggest we do then?" he asked her quietly as he glared at her, seeing as she hadn't quite let go of him yet. She grinned and, as she let go, winked at him.

"Why, we provoke him to get him down here, of course."

Both the brothers stared at her as she shrugged the bag that had stayed on her shoulders all this time off and braced her legs, one hand on her hip while the other continued to dangle uselessly. She grinned slightly, before yelling up at Envy, "Like you're one to talk. Look at you, staying up there 'cause you're afraid of four teenagers. It's pathetic."

"Taylor, what are you doing?" Crystal hissed, having missed the exchange with Edward. All she saw was her best friend insulting a homunculus determined to kill them all.

The redhead ignored her and continued to provoke Envy, "What's more, two of those teenagers are girls. Are you really afraid of a bunch of girls?"

Envy gave her what could only be described as a look of pure hatred. Briefly, the thought went through both girls' minds, _'If looks could kill...'_

"Who are you calling scared, little girl?" he sneered defensively. He crouched down, and then jumped off the edge of the building.

With a scream, Taylor covered her eyes as she watched the Envy-want-to-be fall to what she was certain was his demise. However, she quickly uncovered them when she heard him mock her, "What's the matter, are you finally scared?"

Gulping, Taylor said shakily, "Scared was me in the alley... Now I'm terrified..." As he began to attack her, she dodged as best she could.

Crystal rolled her eyes. Trust Taylor to start something she couldn't finish. "I told you he wasn't human." she said patiently, as the short redhead did a one-handed back flip to avoid a kick-punch combo from the homunculus. "But did you listen? Oh no, heaven forbid that!"

"Less criticizing, more help!" Taylor said shortly, making it clear that she was running out of breath, already near exhaustion from the woods, the alley, and their run, plus the fact she had been working hard all day.

As if on cue, the road beneath them suddenly shifted. Yelping, Taylor wisely chose to run now and hide behind Crystal, as a giant stone fist wrapped itself around Envy. Wide-eyed, the two teen girls stared at each other, then at the very smug blonde teenage boy as he clapped invisible dust off of his hands.

"That was so cool!" Crystal breathed, eyes wide and shining as she once again slipped into rabid fangirl mode, running over to admire Edward's handiwork, despite the now cussing and struggling Envy. Taylor, however, was feeling decidedly ill, and she let her legs fall out from underneath her, still somehow landing in a graceful heap. While Edward basked in Crystal's obvious adoration, Al noticed Taylor and approached her cautiously.

"Are you alright?" he asked her softly.

She slowly shook her head, and Al noticed her entire body was shaking, "Where are we...? How is any of this possible...?" Pressing her hand against her forehead, she felt the tears fall. "I don't want to be here! I want to go home, to Cal!" She gripped her bangs in her hand as she spoke, trying to find some kind of anchor as she felt her world going completely upside down for the second time in her life.

"Please, please don't cry." Al pleaded. "We'll get you home, I promise..." Hesitating only a minute, he asked, "Who's Cal?"

"My... my big brother." Sniffing, Taylor tried to pull herself together. "He's been taking care of me, these last few years."

"Mine too... See, we have that in common." Al looked up to where Edward and Crystal were standing, trying to silently plead for one of them to come bail him out of this mess. Crystal didn't notice, but unfortunately, Envy did. The homunculus smirked at the tearful girl, his violet eyes shining with untold malevolence.

"Aww… is the little brat going to be a crybaby now?" he cooed mockingly. Taylor scowled before she flipped him the bird and wiped the tears out of her eyes.

"Oh puh-leeze, like that even means anything to me," Envy said with a roll of his eyes. "That's like spitting on a forest fire."

"Oh, put a sock in it, gaywad!" Taylor growled venomously. Envy smirked once again before he hastily shifted into the form of a snake and slithered out of the stone hand before resuming his usual gender-confused palm tree shape. Both Taylor and Al gasped before the girl attempted to scramble backwards. The homunculus didn't give her a chance as he lunged forward and grabbed her by her jacket collar before throwing her hard into an unforgiving brick wall. Nobody except a certain shape-shifter noticed the white scrap of paper that fluttered out of Taylor's pocket.

Taylor let out a pained groan as she propped herself up on her elbow just in time to see Envy stoop down and pick up a small square of paper. The teenager's eyes widened as she stared in horror at the homunculus.

"Well look at this," Envy hissed. "Seems like the brat's gone and lost something."

Crystal and Ed looked like they were about to pounce on the newly liberated shape-shifter just as Envy changed his form into someone that Taylor recognized with crystal clarity. The teenager stared in horror at the man now standing in front of her, her mossy eyes wide in disbelief.

"Who in the hell-" Ed began, only to be cut off by Taylor's hoarse whisper.

"Daddy?"

Crystal was a little confused, though she knew more than the Elric brothers did. Taylor had only been in Crystal's neighborhood for the past three years, after the accident. Cal didn't keep pictures of their parents up in the house, but she knew that Taylor always kept one on her, though apparently not in her bottomless pit of a bag. Mr. Logan was always working somewhere, while Mrs. Logan took care of the kids and the house. It was her that Crystal had met picking Taylor up after school when they were younger and fixing snacks for the girls when they went over to the Logan house across town while they did their homework. Taylor's mother had been blonde, with bright blue eyes. Cal had her coloring, though Taylor had her willowy frame and her grace. This man had Taylor's red hair, though his was a little browner than hers, and her green eyes. He had same the tall, stocky frame as Cal, an intimidating sight for anyone.

"So, this is your father's shape, huh?" Envy wrinkled his nose in distaste, using the dead man's voice as he spoke. "What he do? Get thrown in jail or something? Is that why you have to live with your brother now?"

Part of Taylor's temper awakened from her state of shock, and she glared at him, "Don't you dare talk about my father that way! He was a great man!"

What part of her that had just awakened died when Envy smiled mockingly, making tears form at the corner of her eyes. When he smiled that way, it reminded her of when her father would come through the front door. He would hold out his arms, and she would run forward to give him a hug, no matter where she was or what she was doing. Envy seemed to determined to stir up every painful memory she had.

Clenching her hands so that they formed fists, Crystal ran forward, saying indignantly, "You asshole! How dare you!"

She used her fists to sucker punch Envy in the gut hard enough to make him revert back to his unisex form. She then pushed him to the ground, her eyes flashing dangerously. "She's had enough problems these last few years, and what do you do? You bring that all up again!" Crystal kicked Envy in the gut to punctuate certain points through out her speech. "You insignificant, ignorant, cowardly, son of a-." Her last insult was cut off by Envy finally managing to get a grip on her foot, stopping her violent abuse.

"Haven't you learned, little girl?" the homunculus hissed as he glared at her. "I'm stronger than you!"

With that comment, Envy shoved Crystal, causing her to lose her balance and fall flat on her back with a yelp. With an evil smirk, Envy stood up and planted his foot on the girl's chest, pressing all of his weight down on her.

"What's wrong? Aren't you gonna try and fight back?" he asked venomously as he pinned the struggling teenager down onto the wet pavement.

"She might not, but I will!" Taylor cried out angrily as she rushed forward to assist her friend. Envy barely had time to look up before he was kicked forcefully in a certain area that no male, human or homunculi, would ever want to be kicked. The shape-shifter let out a pained grunt as he stumbled backwards, unconsciously freeing Crystal. The other girl scrambled to her feet just as Taylor lashed out with her right foot, knocking Envy's legs out from underneath him and sending him sprawling into a half-empty metal trash can.

"Taylor, the lid!" Crystal cried out suddenly, her tone urgent. "Put the lid on before he recovers!"

With bewilderment evident on her face, the smaller girl did as she was told. After approximately two seconds, the trash can began to wobble about in an almost drunken manner as its current occupant attempted to get out. Taylor stared at it wide-eyed as she started to back away, only to freak out when Envy started kicking at the lid.

"Crys, that's not gonna hold him for long!" she yelped. Crystal scowled as she flung her backpack down on the ground and started to dig through it frantically.

"Sit on the lid then!"

"What! Have you lost your mind?"

"Just do what I say! The added weight will hold him until I find what I'm looking for!"

Taylor appeared doubtful, but she immediately hopped up on the trash can lid and held on for dear life. Ed and Al both looked at each other incredulously before the younger Elric ran over and pressed his hands down on the sides of the lid, adding his weight to Taylor's. Envy doubled his struggles to get out once he realized that kicking wasn't doing him an ounce of good, and threw in some incredibly colorful curses as he tried to throw off the two teenagers from his prison.

"Crystal, now would be nice!" Taylor hollered pointedly as Envy gave a particularly violent bounce. Crystal didn't give a response as she pulled a monstrous roll of duct tape out of her backpack before running over and taping down the lid with Al and Taylor's help. Once she had accomplished that task, both she and Taylor sat down with a relieved sigh while Envy continued to thrash about, only this time without the fear of him escaping.

"I can't believe that actually worked..." Taylor couldn't help pointing out.

"Hey, even your little nothingness can keep a lid on." Crystal, in return, couldn't help teasing her tiny friend. She eyed the thrashing trash can speculatively. "Think that'll hold him for a little while at least?" Her question was obviously directed towards the Elric brothers, seeing as Taylor had stood up and wondered off somewhere.

"At least..." Even Edward sounded doubtful.

Taylor returned, her bag in hand, and sat down next to Crystal. "Can't you do your little hand-clapping thingy and make the trash can into one solid cylinder?" she said doubtfully as she began to rummage around in her bag. She still wasn't sure she believed in all this alchemy business.

Edward spluttered at her disregard. "Hand-clapping thingy? I'll have you know that no one else besides me can do alchemy without a transmutation circle!"

"Not true!" Crystal protested. "So can the Dragon Lady!" Crystal sighed as Taylor began to place things in her care, digging through the black bag. Despite its relatively normal size, that thing was like a Mary Poppins bag; it never seemed to get full. As a result, Taylor frequently lost things in it. Currently, Crystal was holding on to Taylor's toe shoes, the pink cloth worn from the abuse to break them in plus her actual work in them. As she always did when given the shoes, Crystal tapped the wood in the toe, always curious as to how they actually shaped the wood in exactly the right shape. At least, she tapped them till Taylor slapped at her hands, glaring.

"Dragon Lady?" Al said, confused. However, he held onto the trash can as his brother, grumbling, did as Taylor suggested and make the trash can into one whole, almost air-tight cylinder. Once that was accomplished, he left Edward to sulk. "And what are those?"

The brunette ignored his first question and said, "Don't ask me; I'm a klutz in normal shoes. Ask her." Crystal pointed to Taylor, still digging through her bag, though she didn't appear frustrated...yet.

"Huh?" Taylor looked up, confused. Al repeated his question as Crystal held up the shoes. "Oh, toe shoes. You use them in ballet, to dance _en pointe_, on the very tips of your toes. There's wood in the toe to support your weight, with cotton around it so you don't hurt your feet."

"Liar!" Crystal protested, like she always did. "I see your feet! You blister like no other, get splinters, break off toenails, rub your skin raw to the point that you bleed..." She stopped in her list of Taylor's common ailments when she noticed that both Edward, who had been pretending not to listen, and Al, despite being a suit of armor, looked ill. "Hey, it's true, I'm not kidding around. She soaks her feet for, like, an hour in ice water to numb them after a long practice, they hurt so bad. And she practices twice a day, everyday, plus lessons three times a week!"

Taylor cut in, "One of those is jazz, you know. As in, normal ballet flats, not toe shoes."

"Not my point!"

Rolling her eyes, the redhead returned to her search through her bag, only to make a sound of complete disgust. "Crystal, what the hell is this doing in my bag?" With a glare at her best friend, Taylor threw a volume of Fullmetal Alchemist at her friend. "I told you, keep your anime crap out of my bag! I have a hard enough time finding stuff in here as it is!" It was only then that Taylor noticed that Edward and Al were staring at the volume in shock, and Crystal was suddenly looking fearful. "What? What just happened?"

All was silent for a good minute before Crystal's grip on the DVD case tightened, and she exploded into a rage.

"You idiot!" she ranted furiously. "Do you have any idea as to what you just did?"

"Umm… gave your stupid DVD back?"

"_No_!"

Taylor almost fell over from the force of Crystal's shriek as the taller girl reached a level of rage that no one had ever seen before.

"Crys, you're starting to scare me here," the redhead pointed out warily. "Tell me what's wrong."

"You… you just…" Crystal swelled up like an angry toad as words failed her for the first time since Taylor had known her. The smaller girl watched her uneasily as Crystal forced herself to take several deep breaths in an effort to calm down.

"What I want to know is what exactly that thing is!" Edward said shortly, pointing to the DVD that Crystal still had clutched in her hand. "Why does it have a picture of me and Al on it?"

Crystal pointed at Edward and said, "You want to know what's wrong? There you go."

"I am still confused." Taylor said, tilting her head. "Why is it such a big deal?" She quietly moved her repair kit, which was what she had been looking for, from her bag and into her back pocket. Something told her that she was about to loose her bag if Crystal didn't calm down soon.

The brunette paused, long enough for Edward to sweep in and grab the DVD case from her. "Hey!" she protested, only to fall silent when the blonde boy glared at her, completely serious.

"I'm going to ask you one last time," he said slowly, obviously trying to keep his temper under control. "What is this thing?"

Shrugging, Taylor said, "Generally, it's a disc with information put on it. A device reads the information and pulls it up onto the screen. In this specific case, it's Crystal's anime crap, as I believe I stated earlier. I don't know any of the specifics because, namely, I don't care."

"Taylor!" Crystal hissed urgently, her eyes narrowed dangerously. Ed shot her a venomous glare in response, his golden eyes hard.

"I want both of you to tell me what the hell is going on, and I want the truth!" he gritted out acidly. Taylor swallowed nervously while Crystal started to fidget where she was standing.

"Holy crap, Lust is right behind you!" the girl suddenly cried out, pointing at something right behind the two boys. Ed and Al both whirled around to face the 'opponent', only to see that no one was there. Crystal took this opportunity to grab Taylor by her left forearm and haul her to her feet before taking off like a shot in the opposite direction from the Elrics.

It took Ed approximately two seconds to realize that he had been bamboozled before he took off after the two girls, furious at being tricked.

"Crys, what are you doing?" Taylor yelped as she struggled to keep up with her friend. Crystal glanced back at her, worry evident on her pale face.

"I'm trying to keep us out of jail!" she pointed out shortly as they whipped around a corner. "You just _had_ to pull my DVD out and start waving it around, didn't you?"

"You're the one that put it in my bag!"

"So? That didn't mean that you needed to pull it out!!"

"It was still in my bag!"

Crystal growled out an incomprehensible profanity under her breath in response as she jerked Taylor off in another direction out of the line of sight. The small girl barely even had time to form a question before Crystal dragged her up the steps to a fire escape on the side of a three-story brick building. Once the two girls had reached the top of the building, Crystal pulled Taylor away from the side and motioned her over to a spot on the middle of the roof.

"So, what are we gonna do now?" Taylor asked with a sigh as she sat down and pulled her repair kit out from her back pocket. Crystal watched her wordlessly for a few moments before she responded.

"I'm not really sure," she admitted. Taylor arched an eyebrow in question as she shrugged off her jean jacket and then rolled up the right sleeve to her long-sleeved shirt that she was wearing.

"I thought that you always had at least one crazy idea or another," she pointed out nonchalantly as she set about repairing the broken link and loose pulley in her right arm. "Personally, I'm all in favor of going to the first phone booth I see and calling Cal to come and pick us up. I don't know about you, but I've dealt with enough weird shit today to last me a lifetime."

Crystal gave a snort of sarcastic laughter in response.

"Only today?" she asked teasingly. Taylor shot her a piercing look in response as she finished her repairs and put her tools away before rolling down her sleeve and pulling her jacket back on.

"You know what I mean."

"No, but I'll pretend I do anyway..." Crystal's teasing died off, and she look down to make sure that Ed hadn't found them. Both of them jumped when, suddenly, a classical music ringtone sounded off. Crystal couldn't help glaring at Taylor, "You had your phone with you the whole time?"

Taylor shrugged. "Guess so. I forget what's in here, sometimes." Digging around in her bag, she pulled it out and answered it, "Hello?"

**Wandering Hitokiri: (Grins triumphantly as she holds down a struggling and swearing Ed) Give it up Ed, I'm bigger than you. **

**Ed: Not on your life!!!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ithil: (proudly leans on the chair being used to keep the closet door shut) I'd had enough arguing for a while. (Edward's yelling voice can be heard, muffled by the door)**

**LNF: (sweatdrops) Uh, Ithil? We kinda need him for the story...**

**Wandering Hitokiri: Nonsense! Here, Ithil, this works better. (hands her a huge roll of duck tape)**

**LNF: (double sweatdrops)**

**Al: (sighs and pats LNF on the shoulder) Don't worry, they have to let him out soon.**

**LNF: (nods and curtsies to the readers) Moving on, we do not own FMA, but Crystal, Taylor, and their families are ours.**

Taylor spoke hesitantly into the phone, "Hello?"

"TAYLOR JULIANNA LOGAN! WHERE ARE YOU?" Cal's voice blared out from the earpiece.

Wincing, the redhead removed the phone from her ear as the yelling continued. Crystal winced as well when she heard exactly how mad Cal was. When he stopped for breath, Taylor quickly said, "Cal, didn't you get my note?"

"Note." he sounded stunned for a moment. "Where?"

With a roll of her eyes, Taylor said, "On the desk, where I always leave notes when I go out."

The sound of rustling paper followed, then Cal said sheepishly, "Oh... So you're at Crystal's then? Sorry I wigged on you. I just came in to see how you were doing, what with the storm and all..."

"And under normal circumstances, I'd appreciate it. However, with Crystal, nothing is ever normal." The redhead stuck her tongue out at her friend as the brunette huffed. "By the way, I'm not at Crystal's." Taylor added, worry filling her tone. "We ran into trouble in the woods"

"HEY!"

Both girls simultaneously spun around to see one incredibly irritated alchemist peering at them from over the ledge of the building, where he had obviously climbed up the fire escape. "Crap," Taylor muttered before she fixed Crystal with an accusing look. "Who paged the idiot brigade?"

"I heard that!!" Ed raged angrily. Crystal opened her mouth to fire back a retort, only to be distracted by Cal's conversation.

"Taylor, what's going on?!" the man demanded, worry obvious in his voice.

"We're currently being harassed by a midget with a Napoleon complex and a walking suit of armor," Taylor responded dryly. "And I thought this day couldn't get any worse."

"Midget?!! Who're you calling a microscopic dwarf that can't see over a sheet of paper?!!" Ed shouted furiously as he started to scramble over the ledge of the building. Suddenly, a familiar voice called out from below the boy.

"Fullmetal, stop screwing around and just get up there. I'm not going to wait about all day," the man pointed out somewhat irritably.

"Shut up, Colonel Bastard!!" Ed screeched over his shoulder. Taylor stared incredulously at him just as an awed gasp from behind her caught her attention. The smaller girl glanced behind her to find that Crystal had somehow slipped back into rabid fangirl mode, and her eyes were practically shining with in excitement.

"Can that be… Roy-kun?!" she squealed enthusiastically. Taylor let out a heartfelt groan and smacked her forehead with her left hand, not noticing that Ed had mimicked her action at hearing Crystal's response.

"Crys, now is _not_ the time," Taylor pointed out irritably. Crystal pouted, but nodded her head in agreement.

"We should probably start running," she muttered hesitantly.

"No, you think?" Taylor said sarcastically. Cal, who had been listening to their conversation, suddenly broke in.

"Taylor, what is going on?"

"Sorry Cal, but she'll have to call you back," Crystal interrupted as she seized her friend's cell-phone and snapped it shut before stuffing it into Taylor's backpack. Before the red-head could say anything, Crystal seized her good hand and dragged her over to the opposite side of the roof, where they took a running jump and landed on the roof of the building next to them. Ed's jaw dropped before he hauled himself up onto the rooftop and ran after the two girls.

Glaring at her friend, Taylor said as they ran, "You do realize that Cal is going to kill you for hanging up on him?"

Crystal said, "He'd kill me even more if I had to tell him you got fried."

"Fried?" Taylor questioned. Shaking her head, she sighed, "I don't even want to know, do I?"

"Probably not... Oh, crap." The two friends came to a screeching halt. They had hit the end of the block. There was a street on every side, except for the direction from which Edward was fast approaching.

Taylor looked over the edge and sighed, "No fire escape on this side, no time to check the other two. Any more clever ideas?"

"Hey, enough of the sarcasm! I know, this is screwy." Crystal complained. "But we've fought our way out of corners before!"

"Correction: _You've_ fought our way out of corners before. I just have to stand back and watch." Taylor pointed out. "And unless you have something besides duck-tape in that bag of yours, we're in deep trouble."

Crystal glared at her, though not really meaning it. Taylor was right, after all.

"Finally! Sheesh, you two are dumb!" Edward said as he stopped in front of them, crossing his arms and grinning at the two girls cockily. "Did you really think you could outrun us?"

"Do you really think you'll ever grow?" Taylor countered nastily, fighting the urge to whap him upside the head. Something about this guy _really_ rubbed her the wrong way.

Before Edward could respond, the infamous black-haired colonel walked forward serenely. "Easy now, Fullmetal. We wouldn't want to harm these lovely young ladies." Mustang smirked as the blonde boy sputtered at him, obviously annoyed. He turned serious, however, when he spoke to the girls. "As for you two, do you know how much trouble you've caused?"

"No, but I bet you're going to tell us, anyway." Taylor said dryly, rolling her eyes.

"Taylor, be nice! Roy-kun hasn't done anything!" Crystal scolded, her stormy blue eyes narrowed warningly.

Rolling her eyes again, Taylor said. "Yet."

"Roy-kun?" Mustang queried, arching a black eyebrow in disbelief. "Where on earth did you come up with something like that?"

"You don't wanna know, just trust me on this one," Taylor muttered darkly as she clapped a hand over Crystal's mouth before the brunette could say something that would land them in even more trouble. Mustang stared at the two incredulously, but decided to let the topic drop for the time being.

Taylor stared at the man in front of her intently before something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. The very top of a ladder poked over the side of the building, indicating a potential way out. The girl allowed a slight grim smile to cross her face before she returned her attention to Mustang; she was going to need all of her acting abilities to get out of this situation.

"Umm… why are we in trouble?" she asked politely, squashing any potential urge to act like a smart-alec as her left hand snaked into her pocket. Mustang didn't notice this as he gave the two teens a stern look.

"You ran from a State Alchemist even though you were ordered to answer a question, and you have what appears to be evidence of espionage. Where am I not being clear?"

Taylor adopted what she hoped was the proper ashamed face that Mustang was looking for before she whipped out a can of pepper spray from her pocket and hit the man directly in the eyes with the stinging spray.

"Arrgahhh!!!" Mustang cried as he clutched at his offended irises while Taylor shoved the can back into her pocket and grabbed Crystal by the arm.

"RUN FOR IT!!!" she insisted as she dragged her friend over to the side of the building where she saw the ladder.

"Stop!" Ed cried out just as the two girls jumped from the top of the building. For one gut-wrenching moment, Taylor thought that she had chosen the wrong side of the building, at least until she and Crystal landed with a crash on the metal platform of yet another fire escape.

"Are you insane?!" Crystal shrieked, her blue-gray eyes wide in panic. "You could have gotten us killed!!"

"Well I didn't see you coming up with any ideas!" the shorter girl snapped irritably. "C'mon, let's just get the hell out of here before anything else happens."

Without further ado, the two teenagers proceeded to run as fast as they could in the direction opposite from the State Alchemists that they had just managed to offend. Neither of them stopped running until they had reached the outskirts of the city and collapsed with an immense sigh of relief on a grassy riverbank.

"Okay, what did you do to Roy-kun back there?" Crystal demanded seriously as she glanced over at Taylor, who was lying flat on her back on the grass.

"Why do you want to know?" the red-head muttered, thoroughly exhausted from the seemingly endless amount of running that she and her friend had been doing.

"That way, if he shows up hell-bent on incinerating you, I at least know what you did to make him mad," Crystal pointed out. Taylor managed to wearily roll her eyes in response, but she reached into the pockets of her jeans and pulled out the can of pepper spray that she had used on Mustang, holding it up so that her friend could see it clearly.

"Does this answer your question?"

Crystal was silent for several minutes before she even dared to respond.

"You do realize that we are going to die in a slow and horribly agonizing way for this, right?" the teenager asked shakily.

"I don't care, just as long as I get to sleep," Taylor muttered, fatigue evident in her voice as she replaced her pepper spray in her pocket. "I'm so tired that I don't even think a nuclear bomb going off could wake me up once I fell asleep."

The older girl watched the redhead curl up in ball, using her arm for a pillow. As tempting as sleep was, Crystal knew that one of them at least had to stay awake. Looking up at the still cloud-covered sky, she muttered, "What have I gotten us into now?" She wrapped her arms around her legs and leaned her head on them. With Al traveling with the ones pursuing them, she was sure she'd hear the clank of his armor from way off, giving her time to wake Taylor and get out of there. They stayed that way for a good half-hour.

A clap of thunder announced the return of the rain. Scowling up at the sky, Crystal turned to look at Taylor. Despite the fact that she was normally a light sleeper and would wake up if so much as a drop of rain fell on her face, Taylor was sleeping through this storm easily. Frowning, Crystal pressed her hand against her friend's forehead, only to yank it back with a hiss. Taylor's normally cool skin was warm...too warm. Her breathing was slightly uneven, too, now that Crystal was paying attention.

"Oh no... Taylor, now is so not a good time to catch a cold." Crystal pleaded under her breath. She reached over and pulled the small girl so she was curled up against her to share some of her warmth. Already drenched, she knew it wouldn't hurt her clothes, and Taylor needed all the extra warmth she could give her. "Think, Crys, think." the brunette muttered under her breath.

Resigning herself to it, Crystal swung both their bags over Taylor's shoulders, and then slung the younger girl onto her back, similar to how she would give her brothers piggy back rides when she was in a good mood. Crystal was stunned when she realized that the bags were all together heavier than her little friend.

"That's it, you're eating more. I don't care if it makes the other dancers laugh at you," Crystal half-heartedly promised her. This was an old argument between them.

Thinking over her vague knowledge of the layout of Central from her anime obsession, she headed in the direction she thought she needed to go. Every time she had to adjust her friend, Crystal kept expecting her to wake up and demand to know what she was doing. However, Taylor slept on, though she had started shivering. The trip wasn't any easier by Crystal having to dodge into alleys every time she saw a blue military uniform or a red coat. Finally, she stood outside a familiar house...she hoped.

Setting Taylor down on the steps for a moment, Crystal hurried up to the door and knocked. She was relieved when an attractive blonde woman opened the door, though the woman looked surprised.

"I'm sorry to bother you so late," Crystal said, not knowing what time it was. "But my friend and I have been out in the rain for hours, and I think she's caught a cold or something. Could you let us in till the storm lets up?"

"Oh... Oh, of course." The woman smiled. "Here, give me your bags and bring your friend in. We have a spare bedroom where you can stay." Crystal gladly did as she was told, for once. Once she had set Taylor down on the bed, she turned to find the woman already there with what looked like a couple of worn dresses and towels. "These are a couple of my old things I thought you could wear while your clothes dry. They look like they may fit you, if they are a little short. I'm not so sure about her. I didn't notice that she was so small."

"It's no big deal." Crystal assured her.

The woman blinked, and then laughed. "Yes, I suppose so. By the way, I'm Mrs. Hughes."

"I'm Crystal, and she's Taylor." Crystal told her with a smile. She had remembered right. This was Lt. Colonel Hughes's wife.

"What were you doing out there so early in the morning? It's only six." Mrs. Hughes asked curiously.

"Long story." Crystal hedged, shocked by what time it was. It didn't feel like it had been that long.

"Well, let's get your friend out of her wet clothes, and then you can tell me," the woman stated with a smile. "I'm a good listener."

Crystal gave the older woman a relieved smile before she responded. "Actually, I won't need any help with that. My friend got in an accident a few years ago and had some really nasty injuries as a result, so she gets a little touchy about who sees her without her clothes on."

"Oh, my. What happened?"

"She was in a car accident, and her parents got killed," the teenager explained as she removed Taylor's sopping wet jean jacket and dropped it down onto the floor. "You'll have to ask her about the rest, because it's not really my place to tell you."

Gracia Hughes stared at the dripping wet teen standing in front of her before a look of understanding entered her eyes, and she gave the girl a reassuring smile before she exited the room, closing the door behind her. Crystal blinked in surprise as she stared at where the woman had been standing before she proceeded to strip Taylor down to her camisole and underwear, throwing her friend's wet clothes down onto the floor. Once she had accomplished this, she eased one of the dresses that Gracia had given her over the unconscious girl's head.

Crystal watched Taylor intently for a few moments, her blue-gray eyes worried. She and Taylor had known each other since they had been ten years old, and she had supported her friend through thick and thin. And now they were stranded in an alien country (well, at least alien to Taylor), with no way of getting back home and no one else to help them but themselves. Not to mention the fact that Taylor was currently lying unconscious in the bed of Lt. Colonel Hughes's guest room with a steadily rising fever.

"This is all my fault," the girl muttered darkly she proceeded to shuck off her soaked clothing and throwing it into the steadily growing pile of wet garments. "I should never have gone out to check out that stupid light, I should have just gone to bed and gone to sleep. But because I did, we're in Amestris, and my best friend is sick all because of my stupid decision!"

Crystal realized that she was being too hard on herself, and took several deep breaths in order to calm down. Once she had managed to get her emotions under control, she pulled one of the other dresses over her head and ran her fingers through her wet hair in an attempt to straighten it. Realizing that the only thing that could possibly help her at this moment would be a brush, Crystal checked on Taylor once again before she left the room and headed downstairs to the living room where Mrs. Hughes was waiting.

"I can't possibly thank you enough for your help, Mrs. Hughes," she said fervently. The older woman gave her an understanding smile as she gestured to the couch, where Crystal immediately took a seat.

"Would you mind telling me how you girls came to be running about in the middle of a rainstorm?" she queried gently. "I'm sure that your parents are worried sick by now."

"Well, I'm willing to bet a lot of money on the fact that Cal's throwing a hissy fit right now," Crystal muttered before she explained. "Cal is Taylor's older brother, and he's been taking care of her ever since their parents died."

Gracia nodded sagely in understanding as she fixed the girl in front of her with a searching look. "But what about your family? Won't they be worried as well?"

"Yeah, they will," Crystal admitted softly as she unconsciously ran a hand through her long brown hair. The older woman waited for a moment, watching the sixteen-year old as she mulled over her thoughts before she continued.

"Last night, I saw this weird light out in the woods behind my house. I snuck out and got Taylor out of bed and convinced her to come with me," Crystal fell silent as her hands clenched tightly at the memory of what they had encountered. "We found this crazy guy that had killed a bunch of animals so he could perform some sort of ritual, and he had drawn a …transmutation circle in the ground. Taylor and I tried to run for it, and we ended up getting knocked out. When we woke up, we were in an alleyway and had absolutely no idea how we got there."

"So you two have been wandering around the city since last night?" Mrs. Hughes asked incredulously. Crystal nodded slightly in response.

"More or less," she muttered. _'If you don't count being chased by a psychotic homunculus, running from two State Alchemists, and having your best friend pepper-spray one of them in the face as 'wandering'.'_

"You two must have been terrified," Gracia murmured thoughtfully. "It's a wonder you even asked anyone for help."

"We really lost our cool a couple of times, but I really didn't have a choice on asking anyone for help when Taylor got sick. We were all the way on the outskirts of town when we decided to get some rest, and she wouldn't wake up. We don't know anyone here, much less where we are, so going home was out of the question."

"My husband works in the Investigations Department of the military, so when he comes home he may be able to help you," the older woman offered as she stood up. "Until then, it would probably be best that you and your friend stayed here until then."

"I don't want to impose!" Crystal protested earnestly. "We'll leave when the rain stops!"

Gracia laughed in response.

"That's perfectly alright; I don't mind at all. Besides, my daughter will be absolutely thrilled to have someone else over for her to play with."

Crystal realized as she looked up at the woman. "Really? How old is she?" 

"Her name's Elysia, and she just turned four," Mrs. Hughes stated as she headed into the kitchen. "She'll probably be up within the next half-hour or so. Would you like some breakfast while you wait?"

Crystal's stomach chose that moment to growl, reminding her that she hadn't eaten breakfast yet, and she flushed red in embarrassment.

"Yes please," she murmured as she stood up and followed the older woman into the kitchen.

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Taylor groaned as she slowly floated in and out of consciousness. Her entire body ached, and her throat felt like sandpaper. The girl knew she was in a bed, and could only logically conclude that she was home sick. Taylor let out another low groan as she turned over on her side and pulled the comforter all the way up to her chin; why was she so cold?

Deciding that she didn't want to waste the effort on wondering what had possessed Cal to turn the heat off, the sixteen-year old drifted back into a fevered sleep.

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Despite the fact that she was supposed to be helping Mrs. Hughes start breakfast, Crystal just didn't have the energy. While this wasn't the first time she had been up all night, this night was just a little crazier than normal. The tall girl sighed from where she sat at the kitchen table, her head resting on her arms as she fought the urge to just close her eyes and sleep.

However, the Lt. Colonel's wife didn't seem to mind, as she moved around the kitchen with ease. Watching her move reminded Crystal of a question that had been lurking in the back of her mind, "Where is your husband, anyway? Did he get called into work last night or something?"

"Sort of." Gracia couldn't help smiling in amusement. "His friend, Colonel Mustang, apparently ran into some trouble last night. All I got as an explanation when he left in the wee hours this morning was that another friend caused some kind of ruckus and when Mustang tried to help, it only got worse. He promised he'd be home by breakfast, though, so he should be here soon."

"Peachy." Crystal grumbled. She knew exactly what the ruckus was: Taylor, Envy, and her.

Gracia looked at the girl curiously. Before she had a chance to voice her question, she heard the front door open. "Oh, that will be Maes!" Crystal's head shot up, and she looked toward the kitchen door. The dark-haired man looked more ragged than she usually associated with him, and he looked about as tired as she did. However, his exhaustion seemed to fade a little when his wife ran forward and hugged him. Crystal couldn't help grinning at the sight. Well, at least until Hughes turned his attention towards her. She gulped when he looked at her through his glasses; she knew that for all his assumed flakiness, he was actually very sharp.

"So, who do we have here?" he asked as his wife urged him to sit down.

"Dear, this is Crystal. She and her friend got lost last night in the storm. When her friend took ill, Crystal stopped here to see if there was someone here who could help." his wife explained as she returned to the stove. "Her friend- Taylor, wasn't it? -is upstairs in the guest room." The blonde woman put the final touches on the meal and set it at the table. "I'll go up there and see how she's doing while I fetch Elysia. Go ahead and start eating, I'll be back soon." With a comforting smile at the suddenly tense Crystal, she hurried up the stairs.

Hughes leaned on his chin on his hand and watched the teenage girl fidget a little. She wouldn't meet his eyes, he noted, and she kept playing with her hair. But what had her so nervous eluded him. Hughes arched a dark eyebrow as he scrutinized the girl closely; she was showing all the signs of someone that was hiding something.

"So, Crystal was it?" he asked politely, and saw the girl jump slightly in her seat. "Where do you live?"

"Umm… outside of Central," she answered evasively, silently offering up a prayer to any divine being that might happen to be watching over her that she would escape from this ordeal unscathed.

Ithil: LNF...

LNF: (cowers) Yes, Ithil?

Ithil: Your Digimon story is waiting...

LNF: (sighs in defeat, then beams) You'll have to let Ed out of the closet first.

Ithil: (glowers at her) Now, LNF.

LNF: (shrugs apologetically to Wandering Hitokiri, and obediently walks off to work on the other story)

Wandering Hitokiri: You keep her on a short leash, don't you?

Ithil: If I didn't, nothing would ever get done.

Wandering Hitokiri: (looks at Al warningly) Don't you start getting any ideas.

Al: What, no, of course not! (holds his hands up defensively)


	5. Chapter 5

**Wandering Hitokiri: Wow, these things really are rolling along.**

**Sanosuke: (Walks in and stares at WH) What are you doing here?**

**Wandering Hitokiri: Sano?! I could be asking you the same question! But, I will not ignore the opportunity that fate has given me. (Quickly drugs Sano and stuffs him in the closet after pulling Ed out) My bishie!!**

**Ed: (Stares at WH for a long time) ... I'm not even going to ask.**

**Al: Wandering Hitokiri and Lost and Never Found do not own Fullmetal Alchemist, and Wandering Hitokiri does not own Sanosuke Sagara from Rurouni Kenshin, even though she wishes that she does.**

**Wandering Hitokiri: You speak blasphemy!!! I wanna own Sano!**

Gracia carefully opened the door to the guest room, a sleepy Elysia right behind her, to check on her other guest. She frowned when she saw the redhead was tightly curled up in a ball under the covers, still obviously shivering. Making sure Elysia stayed by the door, she went into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed, placing her hand on the young girl's forehead. She was the same temperature as she was when she checked on her before helping Elysia get dressed, so she wasn't getting worse, but her fever was still high.

She only had a few moments of warning as Taylor stirred under her hand and groggily looked at her with muddled eyes. Even with sickness clouding them over, the startling green intensity took Gracia off guard for a moment, till she murmured, "Who are you? Where's Cal?" Gracia felt a moment of deep sympathy as the teenager spoke: her voice was raspy and faint. Her mothering instinct kicked in and she touched her forehead soothingly.

"Hello, Taylor. I'm glad to see you awake." she said in a low, even voice. She could tell by the way the girl flinched at even that low volume that she had one heck of a headache. "My name is Gracia, and I'm looking after you. Are you feeling any better?"

The dancer tried to sit up, but only managed to roll onto her back. Startled, she looked in confusion at her side. Crystal had removed her arm when she undressed her, but Taylor didn't know that. Bewildered, she tried to reason out why Cal would leave her with someone without putting her harness and arm on first; he knew how she felt about it being gone around strangers. Brushing it aside for now, she simply pulled the covers up higher with her one hand and whispered, "My head is pounding, and it's so cold." Before she could fight it, a hacking cough shook her whole frame.

Brushing Taylor's bangs out of her face as the coughing fit subsided, Gracia said sympathetically, "You are running quite a fever. I'll bring you some medicine here in a minute, and a couple of extra blankets. You're friend, Crystal, is downstairs. Would you like to see her in a few minutes?"

Crystal? Taylor thought, bewildered again. Why was she here? "Yeah, sure..."

Gracia nodded and, on impulse, kissed the young girl's warm forehead. "Alright. I'll be back up with her and those things in a few minutes." Thinking a moment, she added, "And maybe some food, if your friend and my husband haven't eaten it all yet. Feed a cold, right?"

Stunned by the older woman's unexpected affection, Taylor silently nodded. Smiling, the blonde woman patted her head and went outside. Taylor saw a little girl look at her curiously, despite being obviously still half-asleep, before the door shut. Sighing, she curled up on her side to wait for Gracia to return. It was all she felt like doing.

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Silently, Crystal ate the eggs and sausage stir-fry in front of her, trying to avoid looking at the man sitting next to her. Hughes knew about her and Taylor, she was sure of it. Once he saw the two of them together, he would put two and two together, and he'd take them to Mustang. As much as she loved Roy-kun, she never wanted to be on the other side of his igniting gloves, and that was bound to happen after Taylor's stunt with the pepper spray.

She was saved from further awkward silence by the sound of classical music. Ignoring the stunned look on Hughes's face, she hurried into the hallway, skidding on the water trail she and Taylor left from their trip upstairs. As soon as she found Taylor's bag, she dug around till she found her phone, then flipped it open just before it went to voicemail.

"Hello?" she said breathlessly.

"Crystal? Crystal, is Taylor alright?" Cal's anxious voice came over the earpiece.

Crystal was almost drowning in guilt. She had completely forgotten about hanging up on Cal on the rooftop with Ed coming after them. "Oh Cal, I'm sorry! I completely forgot that you called. Yeah, she's fi-." Stopping herself, Crystal closed her eyes as she remembered where Taylor was. As a result, she didn't notice Hughes come in from the kitchen, his wife and daughter pausing at the foot of the stairs. "Take that back. She's not fine. She was out in the rain for hours, and she fell asleep. Then she wouldn't wake up, and she started shivering, and she's too warm, and you know how she runs colder than normal-."

"Cry, breathe." Cal's voice was firm and in control, and exactly what the tall girl needed. Obediently, she took a deep breath and let it out as she opened her eyes. He continued to speak. "Did you get her inside and out of her wet clothes?"

She nodded, and then remembered that he couldn't see her and said, "Yes. She's upstairs right now, in bed."

"Good. Now, has her fever evened out?" he asked, still sounding calm.

"Umm..." Crystal stalled, unsure. She took the phone and leaned it against her shoulder, noticing the Hughes family for the first time. Smiling sheepishly, she asked, "How is Taylor? Cal called, and he wants to know."

Gracia brushed aside seeing such a strange device and said, "Her fever has stopped rising, though it is still giving her chills. She has a horrid headache and cough, and seems very weak."

Crystal repeated this to Cal. He was silent for moment, and then breathed a sigh of relief. "Crystal, that's all the symptoms of a cold, or colds as far as Taylor is concerned. A few days in bed with plenty of liquids and soup, and she'll be fine. Angry, but fine."

"A few days?" Crystal couldn't help feeling despair. They didn't have days, hours was more likely. However, the anger part confused her. "Wait, angry? Why?"

"You know how she practices twice a day, every day? Our... Our mother explained it to my father and me once." Cal's voice paused over mentioning his and Taylor's parents; Crystal was stunned. Never, not since he took over guardianship of his little sister, had she ever heard him speak of their parents. He continued to speak, "She told us that a dancer's body is like a fine instrument: one missed practice, and it fell a little out of tune, easily fixed. A couple of days without practice, and it became an instrument that had been sitting in a corner, gathering dust, for years. A week or more, and you might as well forget all you know about dancing. As a result, every time Taylor so much as sniffles, she starts taking cold and sinus medicine, so she won't miss practice. She'll be furious that she's missed a few days of practice, and she'll take it out on those nearest to her."

"Ouch." Crystal winced. She knew her best friend's temper. "But you know, I think I have a dummy for her to take it out on."

While she was anime obsessed, she was also very observant; however, she would have to have been blind not to see how Edward's and Taylor's very auras seemed to conflict against each other. If they did get taken in by Hughes, they would be picking at each other like crazy, stemming off any anger she had.

"Whoever it is has my sympathies," Cal muttered dryly. "You know how Taylor gets sometimes when she's mad."

Crystal nodded in agreement; Taylor didn't lose her temper too often, but when she did all hell broke loose. The teenager was startled from her silent musings by Cal's next question.

"So, where exactly are you guys?" the man asked. "If Taylor's as sick as you say she is, I should probably come and pick you two up and take you home."

"Umm…" Crystal muttered as she phrase 'oh crap' ran through her mind. "We… we're not really sure where we are."

"Can I at least talk to the people you're staying with then?" Cal asked sternly. "I need to make sure that Taylor is okay. Besides, what was she talking about earlier when she mentioned you guys running into trouble in the woods?"

Crystal blanched as she held the phone away from her and stared at it intently; she had been hoping to avoid having this conversation.

"To make a long story short, I saw this weird light in the woods and dragged Taylor along with me to check it out. We ended up finding this psychopathic devil-worshiper that had killed a bunch of animals and he tried to go after us," the sixteen-year old explained quietly, keeping her voice low so that the Hughes's wouldn't hear any discrepancies in her story. "All we know is that he did something weird, and we woke up in an alleyway in another city."

Cal managed to make a strangled noise of shock before he exploded.

"YOU DID **WHAT**?!!! FIND OUT WHERE YOU GUYS ARE **RIGHT NOW** AND TELL ME!!"

Crystal yelped and almost dropped the phone as she scrambled to get it away from the general area of her ear before she went deaf. Lt. Colonel Hughes was staring at the teenage girl as she started trembling as Cal continued to rant, although they could all detect a slight tremor of fear in the man's voice.

"DAMMIT CRYSTAL SCHRAFF!! IF **ANYTHING** HAS HAPPENED TO MY LITTLE SISTER BECAUSE OF YOU, I SWEAR THAT I'LL-"

Cal was interrupted in mid-sentence as Hughes seized the cell-phone from Crystal's hand and spoke into the device calmly, although there was a hidden hint of steel in his voice as well.

"Sir, might I ask that you please calm down and stop shouting. I will not have you swearing in front of my daughter," he stated coolly, his greenish-gold eyes narrowed slightly. "I can understand that you are upset, but that does not give you the excuse to take it out on another."

"Who are you?!" Cal demanded shortly. "You had better tell me what's going on, or so help me God-"

"I am Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, and your sister is perfectly fine. All that I ask is that you calm down and allow me to explain things," the man said. Cal grumbled a bit under his breath before he chose to respond.

"Fine."

Hughes looked over at Crystal intently as he continued. "According to my wife, your sister was brought here by her friend here when she found out that she was sick. My wife gave them dry clothes to change into, and your sister was immediately put to bed. To the furthest extent of my knowledge, she is still asleep and has a high fever, but nothing else is wrong with her."

Cal was silent for several moments before he dared to respond. "I'm sorry for losing my temper like that," he admitted. "Ever since our parents died four years ago, I've been the one that's taken care of Taylor and I don't want to lose her too."

"That's understandable," Hughes pointed out. "I would be upset at the thought of losing my family as well."

"If… you could tell me where you live, it would help out a lot," the younger man confessed. "I just want to make sure that Taylor's safe."

"I'm in Central City."

"Thanks. You have no idea how much better that makes me feel," Cal told Hughes fervently. "Crystal has my number, so please call me and let me know if anything else happens."

With this parting comment, Cal hung up. Hughes stared down at Taylor's cell phone for a moment before he looked over at Crystal, who was shaking slightly at the realization that Cal had just landed her and Taylor in more trouble that either of them could even possibly imagine.

"Young lady, I do believe that you have a great deal of explaining to do," Hughes stated calmly as he stared at Crystal intently. The sixteen-year old swallowed nervously as she silently prayed yet again to any merciful celestial beings that might happen to be watching over her. He held up Taylor's cellphone. "First thing, what is this device? It works like a phone-."

"Because it is." Crystal glumly interrupted. Might as well get it over with, she figured. "It runs on a tower system, just like a normal phone, but it has internal and wireless connections."

Hughes blinked, looked at the device curiously for a few moments, then handed it back over to Crystal. "I'll take your word on that." She sighed in relief. "However, I expect full honesty from you in return."

"Of course there's a catch..." she grumbled, but nodded.

Pleased that she was cooperating, Hughes continued, "Now, about you and your friend. You say you live outside of Central. Where exactly? What town?"

"Umm..." Crystal's mind completely blanked and Hughes frowned.

"You don't really live outside of Central, do you?" he coaxed her gently, seeing as the stern interrogator wasn't working.

"Yes and no." Crystal admitted. "I mean, we don't live here in Central, but I have no idea how the town we live in relates to Central." Her mind slipped into her more logical mode, though it used pieces from her fangirl knowledge. "One would assume, since the opposite side of Central appears to be London during WWI, then our town is across the ocean in the middle of a completely different continent. However, the appearance of London could be explained as that is simply where Ed's counterpart was at the time of his crossing through the Gate, so Ed was immediately drawn there. If that's the case, Central could be located anywhere, though probably somewhere in mid-Europe, considering the cities that exist in the middle of a huge desert, yet the rolling plains and mountains of the countryside obviously receive rainfall. The town of Aquroya esembles Venice, with its complicated water networks, so that could help find the equidistant-." Crystal paused when she saw the bewildered expression on Hughes's face. "I've started rambling, haven't I?"

"Not that that's surprising." Taylor's weak voice came from the stairway. Everyone whirled around to stare at her as she took the last step down, leaning heavily on the handrail.

"Taylor!" Crystal protested, "What are you doing out of bed?"

It was five minutes after Gracia left that Taylor remembered exactly what kind of mess Crystal had dragged her into. She had sat up, found her harness and arm buried in the mound of still damp clothes, and put it on under the dress. Thankfully, the sleeves were too long and hid the fact that her right arm wasn't real. Then, with almost painful care, the ill girl had made her way downstairs. She had arrived just in time to here the last of Hughes's conversation with Cal.

"You can't explain anything worth a flip." Taylor pointed out. "You get sidetracked easily. So I came downstairs to help you out." Another cough made her pause, though it wasn't as severe as before. Crystal ran to her side and helped her friend to a nearby couch, obviously concerned.

Hughes rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "Looks like I can't get an answer out of either of you. I hate to do it, but I'm going to have to call Roy and get the Elric brothers over here to ID you."

"That won't be necessary-." Crystal tried to protest, but Taylor cut her off.

"Crys, let them come."

Crystal frowned and whispered fiercely at her, "You don't know what you're saying."

Taylor shook her head. "Yeah, I do. There's no way to get out of this on our own, Crys. We just need to go with the flow for a little while, till we can find a way home."

Rolling her eyes, the brunette added, "And both Edward and Roy-kun are going to kill you. Midget with a Napoleon complex and pepper spray, remember?"

Green eyes showing exactly how tired she was, Taylor said, "I don't care, Crys. We need help."

Gracia put her hand on Taylor's shoulder and said firmly, "Back to bed with you. You can wait there for Maes to call and the state alchemists to arrive." Nodding in agreement, Taylor let herself be led back upstairs. Crystal eyed Hughes nervously, then hurried after them, Taylor's bag still in her hands.

Sighing, Hughes cooed to Elysia, "Come on sweetheart, let's go call Uncle Mustang." Picking her up, he headed into the kitchen where the phone was. Within moments, he was connected to Central HQ, and was talking to Mustang.

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Taylor sat up in the bed and swore silently as a hacking cough was ripped from her chest, leaving the dancer gripping the font of her borrowed dress tightly as her lungs and throat burned. Crystal sat on the edge of her bed and watched her anxiously

"So, what exactly did you say to Cal that got him so worked up that he would be shouting at the top of his lungs?" the smaller girl finally asked. "The last time he got that mad, it was when one of the guys in my dance class said that I shouldn't be doing ballet anymore because I made the rest of the class look bad with my prosthetic."

Crystal grimaced at the comment. She remembered that event all too well, and how Cal had 'dealt' with the situation. All that she knew was that it had involved the threat of severe bodily harm, and the boy had opted for leaving Taylor's dance class instead of facing the irate man a second time.

"I told him what had happened, and he kind of lost it…" Crystal muttered. "I guess that he's really worried about you."

"Worrywart," Taylor muttered good-naturedly as she shook her head before she broke into another coughing fit. "I'm just ticked that I'm probably going to be in bed for the next week or so."

Before Crystal could say anything in response, the front door opened downstairs and the familiar sound of clanking armor and boots became present. The brunette glanced over towards the bedroom door and groaned, placing her hand over her face.

"We're gonna die a slow and painful death now, I just know it," she moaned as the sound of footsteps came up the stairs. Taylor smirked weakly at her friend, and Crystal noticed the beads of sweat that dappled her forehead.

"If worst comes to worst, I can plead that I had no idea what I was doing," she suggested. "I was acting in self-defense. And after what happened in the woods, I think that my actions were somewhat justified."

It was at that moment that Mustang opened the door, and Crystal got a good look of the irritated expression on his face.

"Okay, nix that," she groaned. "We're screwed. I don't want to end life as a charcoal briquette!"

"Crys, stop being so melodramatic," Taylor muttered as she weakly reached out and swatted her friend upside the head.

"I actually think that your friend is being quite serious," Mustang stated sternly, his dark eyes narrowed slightly, although they were bloodshot as well. "That was a very stupid thing that you did back there, girl."

"I was scared, okay?" Taylor grumbled. "I was dragged out of my bed in the middle of the night by my best friend for some wild goose chase, almost ended up as a human sacrifice for some cultist freak, woke up in a strange city, got chased around half of said city by some whack job in a miniskirt, and then by a pipsqueak with an attitude problem! Where in that do I not have a good reason to be scared out of my friggin' mind?"

Mustang froze for a moment after her tirade, and then said, "Are you done now?"

Seemingly mulling it over, she said, "Yeah, I think so."

"Good. Now, Hughes said that you," he addressed Crystal now, "Gave him some round-about story about where you two are from." She nodded. "I don't believe a word of it." He ignored Crystal's outraged cry and continued to speak firmly. "I think you are two teenage girls who thought to play a prank on some military officers and state alchemists, but it got out of control. Now your families are probably worried, and I know that I have one alchemist ready to cause serious harm to both of you, not including myself. Why don't you just confess?"

Taylor gave Crystal a warning look, but found it wasn't necessary. The tall girl was near tears from Mustang's harsh treatment of her and from being called a liar. Crystal sniffed and ignored her best friend as she reached for her hand, obviously concerned. She said firmly, "I didn't lie to you. I wouldn't. And what has Ed so mad, anyway?"

"Besides the strange item you've got that has information about him and his brother on it? Apparently, you two fed some story to Al about a style of dancing involving shoes made of wood." Mustang rolled his eyes and said dryly, "The Fullmetal Alchemist's temper concerning his brother is as short as he is."

Taylor rolled her eyes at him in return. "I'll ignore the short comment, seeing as Crystal has frequently reminded me that I'm shorter than him. However, it isn't a story that we told Al, though my toe shoes aren't made of wood. There's just wood in the tips." Mustang gave her a look that screamed disbelief. "You know what, go downstairs. I'll be down there in a minute. We'll clear everything up." She cleared her throat as her voice turned hoarse, but managed to avoid another coughing fit. When he hesitated, she made a shooing motion with her hand. He gave them both a careful look, and then headed down the stairs.

"Great lie, Taylor. Now, how to get out without them-Oh no. No, no, no, no, no!" Crystal protested loudly as Taylor reached for her bag and pulled out the first thing in it dance related: in this case, her favorite pair of leg warmers, dyed a deep violet. She ignored her and continued to dig in her bag till she had out all of her practice clothes. Resolutely, she pulled the too-big dress over her head, till her brunette friend grabbed her wrist and said, "Taylor, please don't do this."

"Crys, he isn't going to believe us without proof. Besides, I want to show off a little." Taylor grinned at her friend.

Crystal rolled her eyes, "Somehow, when you're sick as a dog I don't think it counts as showing off."

"What does it count as then?"

"Stupidity?" Crystal suggested, only to find that the redhead was already out from underneath the covers, pulling on her white tights with hands that only faintly trembled. "Fine, I can see you're going to be stubborn about this. What can I do to help?"

"Make sure my toe-shoes aren't going to completely fall apart." Taylor admitted. "I'm due for a new pair, but the only ones I have with me are for the upcoming workshop. They're black, and I haven't had a chance to break them in." Crystal rolled her eyes. She knew the amount of work it took to break in a pair of toe-shoes, so it wasn't surprising that Taylor put it off. Agreeably, she began to examine the pink cloth for busted seams as her friend finished pulling on her tights and a black leotard with three-quarter sleeves and a short black skirt.

Reaching for her shoes as Crystal handed them to her, the dancer frowned as she noticed how obvious the joint of the wrist on her fake arm was. Thankfully, her shirt from the night before was mostly dry, and was the same shade of purple as her leg warmers. She pulled it on over her leotard, tied on her toe-shoes, then pulled her leg warmers up over her ankles. Crystal handed her the brush Gracia had lent her, and Taylor gratefully brushed out her tangled, now extremely curly hair. It took her a few minutes to get the copper curls to come into a solid bun at the base of her neck, but after a handful of bobby pins from her bag, they finally laid flat.

Crystal knelt in front of the bed, and Taylor glowered for a moment. "This is so ridiculous."

"Do you want to have enough strength to finish what you started?" Crystal pointed out. Taylor sniffed, but willingly wrapped her arms around her friend's neck, gripping the unmoving hand with her real one as she wrapped her legs around her friend's waist. The brunette steadied her by gripping her knees, then stood up and carried her down the stairs. Taylor rested her head on her friend's shoulder, gathering strength for what she was about to do. She knew it was stupid, that there was a very high chance that she would injure herself. However, Mustang had called her pride as a ballerina into question, and now she was going to show him a thing or two.

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Glowering at a wall, Edward tapped his hand impatiently on his elbow as he waited for the two girls to come downstairs. Unlike Mustang, who was patiently waiting from the couch which had been pushed against the wall, leaving a huge empty space in the middle of the living room, he didn't trust these girls one bit. He had a bad feeling they were planning some kind of escape, even as he stood here, fuming.

"Brother, be patient." Al tried to sooth his brother.

"Patient? Pah!" Edward dismissed. Before he could say anything more, movement on the stair caught his eye. He whipped his head around, and grinned grimly. He recognized the tall, brunette girl easily. However, it surprised him to see the redhead was slung over her friend's back. Rather than the glee that standing up to him and Mustang had really worn her out, instead he felt guilty that what had seemed to be a spirited girl that he could relate with now looked like death warmed over. His eyes, however, couldn't help straying to her legs, which were really very long in proportion to her small frame, and the delicate pink shoes sitting on her feet. The ribbons he remembered seeing connected to them were covered by strange, purple cloth.

Al, however, noticed something else entirely. "Your arm! Its better already?" he asked the redhead eagerly. Even though he barely knew her, he felt bonded to this strange girl.

Taylor blinked at him owlishly for a moment as Crystal sat her back down on the floor, then remembered her arm and the repairs she had made to it. "Oh, my arm. Yeah, it's fine. Though this stupid rain gave me a cold." She wrinkled her nose as she thought of the days of work she was going to miss.

Crystal snickered. She knew what that face was for. "Hey, if you want to call this off, I'm all for it." she offered. Taylor scowled at her, and then noticed the empty space in the living room. She smiled in thanks at the military officers waiting there: Mustang and Hughes, of course, but there was also a blonde haired woman she didn't recognize, and a man who was completely bald except for a single blonde curl sitting with them. She then noticed that Gracia and the little girl were in a corner, the woman looking at her strange clothing curiously.

"Well, I guess it's time to get to work. Crys, my laptop and my CDs are in my bag, if you want to pick something out." Taylor said as she gracefully sat down in the middle of the floor. Before Mustang could ask what she was doing, she spread her legs into almost a complete horizontal split and leaned her body over one leg, stretching her arms till they touched her toes. She stayed that way for a count of eight, and then moved to the other leg.

The brunette couldn't stop another snicker as all the officers, even Ed and Al, gawked at her friend's flexibility. Willingly, she dug in the bag till she found the computer that she and her parents had gotten together for Taylor's Christmas present last year and the big folder of CDs. As the laptop booted up, Crystal wrinkled her nose when she saw that everything in the case was classical. "Gah, Taylor. You do realize that music has been written since the sixteenth century?"

"Doesn't mean its any good, though." the redhead pointed out as she moved her legs to where she was doing a vertical split, and then brought her back foot up to where it almost touched the back of her head. She held it there with her hands for an eight count, and then switched the legs to do the other. Vaguely, she heard the blonde lady officer hiss in surprise at such a move.

Before Crystal could retort back, she finally found Taylor's alternative rock collection. Pulling out a Nickelback CD, she popped it into the laptop and cranked up the tiny computer's volume. This particular model had a great sound system, one of the reasons why she had picked it out.

"Ready when you are," The brunette announced over her shoulder, actually hoping that Taylor would refuse to dance to this kind of music; Taylor was an admitted snob as far as dancing was concerned.

She was proven wrong. As the beginning lyrics came on, Taylor just gave her a dirty look, but otherwise continued her warm up through the first verse.

_Never made as a wise man_

_I couldn't cut is as poor man stealing_

_Tired of living like a blind man_

_I'm sick of sight without a sense of feeling_

_And this how you remind me_

Taylor had leaned backwards to touch the floor with her fingertips. At this point in the song, she let her weight fall forward onto her left hand. She kept her legs completely straight as she brought them over her head in a one-handed cartwheel. Landing directly on the tips of her toes, she did a quick _pirouette_, a fast turn on one leg, and then went into a complicated pattern of twists and turns.

Crystal couldn't help grinning as her friend danced. Despite being sick, Taylor always looked at home when she was dancing.

_This is how you remind me of what I really am_

_This is how you remind me of what I really am_

_It's not like you to say sorry, I was waiting on a different story_

_This time I'm mistaken for handing you a heart worth breaking_

_And I've been wrong, I've been down, been to the bottom of every bottle_

_These five words in my head scream are we having fun yet_

_Yeah, yeah, yeah_

_I don't know_

_Yeah, yeah, yeah_

_I don't know_

_It's not like you didn't know that_

_I said I love you and I swear I still do_

_But it must have been so bad_

_Cause living with me must have damn near killed you_

_And this is how you remind me of what I really am_

_This is how you remind me of what I really am_

Crystal frowned. Something was wrong with Taylor's harness; she could see the cords straining, even underneath layers of clothes. She tensed, feeling as if she was waiting for the world to stop turning.

_It's not like you to say sorry, I was waiting on a different story_

_This time I'm mistaken for handing you a heart worth breaking_

_And I've been wrong, I've been down, been to the bottom of every bottle_

_These five words in my head scream are we having fun yet_

As Taylor went into a huge set of _pirouettes_, she knew something was wrong. She felt the strain of her harness, and her mind remembered exactly when it last felt this way: right before her arm went flying across stage during her recital. However, it was too late. The joints holding the arm in place and the cords of the pulley system came apart, snapping loudly as they went. With a cry, Taylor completely lost her balance as the force of her arm leaving her sent her body tumbling. As her body came to a spot, she curled up into a ball, wrapping her remaining hand tightly in the now empty sleeve of her shirt.

Crystal ran forward to hold her friend, forgetting about the laptop as it stood precariously balanced on the coffee table. Everyone else seemed frozen, especially Edward; the plastic arm had stopped just a few inches away from his feet.

_Yeah, yeah, yeah_

_I don't know_

_Yeah, yeah, yeah_

_I don't know_

_Yeah, yeah, yeah_

_I don't know_

_Yeah, yeah, yeah_

_I don't know_

_Never made it as a wise man_

_Couldn't cut it as a poor man stealing_

_And this is how you remind me_

Sitting up, Taylor angrily pulled the violet shirt over her head, hot tears falling down her face. Her fingers slipped over the metal buckles of her harness as she tried to undo them. Crystal knew better than to try and help; the redhead would only snap at her. Angry red marks covered Taylor's skin from where the cords had snapped as they broke. The teenage girl stopped in her furious unfastening when a coughing fit took her, making her entire body shake. Then Crystal did take her shoulders, trying to offer comfort, for sickness, crippledness, and embarrassment.

_This is how you remind me_

_This is how you remind me of what I really am_

_This is how you remind me of what I really am_

_It's not like you to say sorry, I was waiting on a different story_

_This time I'm mistaken for handing you a heart worth breaking_

_And I've been wrong, I've been down, been to the bottom of every bottle_

_These five words in my head scream are we having fun yet_

The taller girl allowed Taylor to press her face into her shoulder, where she soon felt hot tears leaking through the fabric of her dress. Once Taylor's body had stopped shaking from her coughing fit, it became obvious that the redhead was crying. As far as Crystal could make out, Taylor kept muttering "Dammit!!" in between sobs, and the other girl could clearly hear the frustration and humiliation behind it.

_Yeah, yeah, yeah_

_Are we having fun yet?_

_Yeah, yeah, yeah_

_Are we having fun yet?_

_(These five words in my head)_

_Yeah, yeah, yeah_

_Are we having fun yet?_

_Yeah, yeah, yeah_

_Are we having fun yet?_

_(These five words in my head)_

_No, no_

"Is she… is she alright?" Ed finally managed to ask, forcefully tearing his gaze away from Taylor's plastic arm. The girl's grip on her empty leotard sleeve tightened in an indication that she had heard him, but obviously wasn't about to answer. The teenage alchemist stood up and hesitantly approached the smaller teen. Before he was within two feet of her, Taylor suddenly shot to her feet and bolted up the stairs faster than anyone in the room had ever seen a sick person move. There was the sound of the guest room door slamming shut, and then dead silence.

All of the adults turned to look at Crystal, who still sat in the middle of the floor with a shocked expression on her face. Gracia immediately took Elysia and headed into the kitchen, muttering something about getting something for her daughter to drink.

"I believe," Mustang finally said, after several long moments of heavy silence, "that you have neglected to inform us of several certain important details."


	6. Chapter 6

**Wandering Hitokiri:**** Hello peoples, and welcome to the sixth chapter of 'Black Toe-Shoes and Rabid Fandom'!**

**Ed:**** ... Quit acting so chipper. It's annoying.**

**Wandering Hitokiri:**** Don't listen to him. He's just mad because I hauled his butt out of bed a few minutes ago.**

**Ed****: You don't wake people up by dumping a bucket of ice water on them!!!!**

**Wandering Hitokiri****: I do when they sleep past noon. Especially when they're snoring loud enough to wake the dead. I looked out in my backyard and saw a hamster that I buried three years ago running around!**

**Ed****: That's physically impossible. (Wandering Hitokiri rolls her eyes and points out the window in the back yard. A skeleton of a hamster can be seen running around, and WH's dogs are staring at it nervously. Ed goes a very nasty shade of white.)**

**Wandering Hitokiri****: Just goes to show you that alchemy can't explain everything.**

**Ed:**** (Mutters) Especially you.**

**(Wandering Hitokiri whacks Ed upside the head with her sheathed katana)**

**Chapter Six**

Crystal stood reluctantly, closing the laptop before it moved on to the next song on the CD.

"I didn't tell you 'cause it wasn't my place." she admitted, refusing to look at anybody. "Taylor's faced a lot of crap over the past few years because of that arm, so she doesn't tell anyone she's got it unless she has to." Sighing, she added, "I guess I better take the harness and arm up there, so she can try and repair it."

"Let me." Ed cut in, reaching down and grabbing them. "You need to answer Colonel Bastard's questions anyway." Before Crystal could protest, he was heading up the stairs, towards the guest bedroom.

Edward hesitated at the guest room door; he had a feeling that just walking in wouldn't end well. Grumbling under his breath, he knocked on the door firmly.

"Go away!" Taylor's angry voice was slightly muffled by the door.

Scowling, Ed opened the door anyway and went it. "Only when you stop being such a-." He stopped when he saw exactly the position Taylor was in.

She was curled in a ball, her only arm tightly gripping her knees as she hid her face between them. When she looked up to glare at him, he saw that her face was stained by tears.

"Go ahead and make jokes." she practically snarled. "I've heard them all before. It's only worse because I'm a dancer. Call me a cripple, or a failure, or whatever else is on your mind. I don't care." Angrily, she looked out the window, not wanting to look at him and see pity there. "Even if people don't make jokes, they treat me like I'm a freak or a pathetic cripple who can't do anything for herself. Sometimes I think that's worse than the jokes."

"I won't do any of that." Ed said softly, setting the harness and fake arm down on the floor beside the bed as he sat down at its foot. He touched her real hand, though he wasn't ready for her to react the way she did. She jerked away from him, glaring at him venomously out of the corner of her eyes. Sighing, realizing he wasn't getting anywhere this way, he took off his glove and showed her his own metal hand.

Stunned, she reached out hesitantly, watching his face carefully. When he didn't react the same way she did, she took the metal into her hand, running her fingers delicately over the seamless joints. "It looks like it bends just like a real hand." she noted softly. "Does it...? Can you feel...?" She couldn't finish her question.

"I can't feel anymore than you can." Edward said, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice. The metal hand twitched a little in her hands and she gasped. "Though I think I have better reactions and reflexes than you do." he added.

"Mine runs on a pulley system." she admitted, keeping her voice soft. "I can only move the shoulder, elbow, and wrist. The hand's a dummy, which is a real pain in the butt when it comes to lifting. Dancing's hard too, since the plastic is so much lighter than a real arm, it throws my balance off."

"Automail, what we use for prosthetics, is actually wired into my nerves." he said, his voice matching hers. "It comes in handy in a fight, where I can transmute my arm into a weapon in a pinch."

"That's… pretty interesting," the sixteen-year old admitted before she shot the taller boy an inquisitive look. "How did you get it?"

"I did something stupid, and I paid for it," Ed stated in a neutral tone. "My left leg is automail as well."

With this comment, he reached down and lifted up his pant leg, revealing the shining steel limb beneath. Taylor let out a faint gasp and her emerald eyes widened in surprise.

"We don't have anything like this where I come from," she whispered in amazement. "Not even the military has anything even remotely close to this."

Ed stiffened up before he looked at the girl suspiciously. "What do you mean the military?"

"Well, my brother did some research on prosthetic limbs not too long after I first lost my arm, and he found some information about the different types available," Taylor pointed out. "Apparently the Unites States government has developed an electronic limb that can respond in a manner similar to a human limb, but it only really works for the legs. They use it for soldiers that have gotten their legs blown off by land mines and other things like that in the war."

"The United States?" Ed inquired incredulously. "Where is that?"

"Across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe," Taylor stated seriously in a manner that indicated that she wasn't lying. "We're one of the nations that manages to tick the rest of the world off because we stick our noses in every one else's business."

Edward decided that it might be a good idea to change the subject, and gently placed his hand on Taylor's real one. The girl looked over at him in confusion as she opened her mouth to speak, only to have him beat her to it.

"How'd you lose your arm?" he asked softly, knowing that the subject was probably a painful one. Taylor frowned before she looked down at the floor intently, her expression downcast.

"Three years ago I got into a car crash, and my parents were killed," she whispered faintly. "This… _asshole_… had been out drinking and went over onto the wrong side of the road on New Years while my parents and I were on our way home from seeing a movie. He hit us head-on and flipped our car. All I remember is my dad swearing as he tried to get out of the way, and then this loud crunching sound. After that, everything was a total blank."

Ed didn't say anything as he watched Taylor intently, and noticed that her shoulders were shaking slightly. The teenage alchemist hesitated for a second before he placed his hand on the trembling girl's shoulder and waited for her to calm down. After a few moments, she took a deep breath and launched back into her narrative.

"I woke up about a week later in the hospital covered in bandages and Cal sitting by my bed looking like he had consumed his weight in coffee just to keep his eyes open. My arm had been amputated while I had been unconscious because it had been too badly mangled to save. Cal showed me one of the pictures that the doctor had taken when I demanded to know what had happened, and my arm looked like ground meat. Apparently it had been crushed when our car had rolled over. When I asked if Mom and Dad were okay, Cal didn't answer me for a long time," Taylor fell silent for a second time as tears welled up in her eyes, and she angrily brushed them away before she dared to continue. "I found out from one of the doctors that my parents had died at the scene of the crash; they were dead before the ambulance even arrived, and all because of one idiot that decided to drive while stone drunk!"

"I'm sorry," Ed whispered. "I lost my mom a couple of years ago, so I know how you feel."

"What about your dad?"

"He's a bastard, and if I ever catch sight of him again I'll punch his face in!" the boy growled vehemently. Taylor's eyes widened as she stared at the boy sitting next to her incredulously.

"Okay…" she muttered nervously. "That's a new one."

Ed rolled his eyes in response just as an irritatingly familiar voice called out from the stairs.

"Fullmetal, do what you went up there to do and bring the girl down here now!" Mustang ordered sternly, although his command was followed by a gunshot, and a yelp. Both teens glanced over at the door with their eyes wide.

"Do I even want to know?" the girl asked hesitantly.

"No, you don't," Ed muttered as he clapped his hands together and proceeded to alchemically repair the harness and pulley system to Taylor's arm. The smaller teen shot him a grateful look as she pulled the harness back on over her leotard and buckled it securely. Once she had finished this task, she pulled her shirt back over her head and completely covered up the harness.

"For reference, who were all the military officers downstairs? I recognized Hughes, of course, and Horse-boy, but I'm not familiar with the others." Taylor asked as she started to pull off her leg warmers and toe shoes, not wanting to walk around in them anymore than necessary.

Ed chuckled, still enjoying her nickname for Mustang. "Well, the woman was First Lt. Hawkeye, and the gunshot you heard earlier was probably hers. The big, bald guy is Armstrong, another state alchemist. He will probably burst into tears when you go downstairs, be warned."

"Another alchemist? How many of you are there?" Taylor teased, and then bit her lip. She had forgotten that this wasn't her brother or Crystal. It was so easy to slip like that with him.

However, Ed didn't seem bothered. "There really aren't that many of us, compared to how many who try the state alchemist exam." he said, leaning against the wall as he watched her fold her toe shoe ribbons so they wouldn't tangle. "Close to thirty people take the test, and they only pick one or two each year."

"Ouch." Taylor said sympathetically. "It sounds like auditions for the ABA, or worse, for a company. There are always hundreds of girls trying out, but only a few from each group are picked for call-backs, and only a few are taken from call-backs."

"ABA? Company? You lost me." Ed admitted, before asking sharply, "Aren't you done yet?"

She stuck her tongue out at him without thinking, and then said, "ABA is an acronym for the American Ballet Academy. It's a private school, where the best young dancers take ballet classes under directors and choreographers from ABC, the American Ballet Company. They hold a workshop, and then offer positions in the company there. Other companies also come to the workshop to look at the newest, best dancers in the country. A company is the group people who run the business of ballet. There aren't only dancers, but choreographers, managers, agents, costume managers... A whole lot of people." she summed up just before she erupted into a coughing, then sighed tiredly once it passed. "I don't think I make it down those stairs again-."

"FULLMETAL!" Mustang's furious roar came from downstairs.

Ed thought for a moment, then knelt in the exact same way Crystal had earlier. "Hop on, then." he told her briskly. She looked at him skeptically for a moment, and then wrapped her arms his neck and her legs around his waist like she had earlier on Crystal. When Ed started to stand up without any warning, she yelped and tightened her grip as a reflex.

"Hey, easy on the grip, will ya? I need to breath, too!" he snapped at her.

"Well, excuse me! Maybe if you had warned me before you stood up, I wouldn't have tightened my grip!" she snapped back. He grunted, knowing she had a point, and headed out the door and downstairs.

"FULLMETAL, IF YOU'RE NOT DOWN HERE IN THIRTY SECONDS, I'LL-!" Mustang bellowed, only to be cut off Ed's comeback.

"Hold your horses, I'm almost there!" he yelled from the middle of the stairway.

Taylor grumbled in his ear from her place on his back, "You'd think with a name like Mustang, he'd know how to hold his horses..." As Ed chuckled, she added, "Then again, mustangs are well known for being wild and throwing temper tantrums. Though thankfully, none of them are pyromaniacs."

Ed erupted into full-blown laughter, just as they reached the base of the stairs. Taylor couldn't help laughing along with him. Crystal turned around to look at the two teens and her jaw just about hit the floor when she caught sight of Ed carrying Taylor down the stairs on his back.

"Wha-?" she gasped before she regained the use of her voice. "What in the world?"

"She needed help going down the stairs," Ed responded semi-grumpily, shooting a dirty look that was mixed with a knowing smirk in Mustang's direction as he walked over to an empty spot on the couch next to Al and set Taylor down there. The Flame Alchemist fixed the redhead with an intense look just as Armstrong, as predicted, burst into tears as he looked at Taylor.

"Ah Edward Elric, how noble to go and assist the lass when she suffers from a predicament so similar to your own!" the gigantic man boomed loudly, causing Taylor to flinch and clap her good hand over her ear while she shut her eyes against the barrage of eye-blindingly pink sparkles that sprang up out of nowhere.

"Gah, stop it before we all go blind!" the teen yelped. "I actually want to retain any other sensations that I have, not lose them!"

Armstrong looked over at her and blinked, not quite understanding what the teenager was talking about. "I'm not sure that I understand what you mean, young lady."

"The stuff with the tears and the sparkles… just please, stop," Taylor explained. "It's a little… weird."

"Great, now he's going to start going on about how his little act is something that's been 'passed down the Armstrong line for generations'," Crystal groaned as she buried her head in her hands. Armstrong didn't hear her comment as he did exactly as the brunette had predicted, although Mustang did. The older man gave the teen a suspicious glare as he pressed his fingers together thoughtfully.

"I believe that you two still haven't given us a _truthful_ explanation as to where you are from, and the contents of that strange disk that Fullmetal confiscated," the Colonel stated pointedly, and Crystal flinched.

"Umm… I plead the Fifth?" she asked nervously, only to be met with strange looks from all of the adults in the room. Taylor, on the other hand, merely groaned and slapped her forehead with her left hand.

"Crys, if they want to see what's on the DVD, let them," she stated in obvious annoyance. "It's not like it's gonna hurt anything, and I really want to get this over with."

The redhead suddenly burst out coughing once again, and almost fell off the couch from the force of the wet hacking cough that tore from her chest. Fortunately for the dancer, Al managed to grab her before she fell off and helped to stabilize her. Once Taylor had gotten her coughing attack under control, she looked over at Mustang intently.

"My laptop has a disk drive, so it can play DVDs," she stated as she held out her hand. The man hesitated for a moment before he withdrew Crystal's FMA DVD from the folds of his overcoat and handed it to Taylor. Crystal made as though to snatch the DVD from her friend, only to be stopped by Edward grabbing the back of her dress.

"Don't even try," the teenager alchemist warned sternly as Taylor popped open the disk drive to her laptop and inserted the DVD. Crystal made a low moaning sound of distress as the episode selection screen came up, accompanied by the title 'The Fall of Ishbal'. Ignoring the astonished gasps of everyone else in the room, Taylor clicked on the first episode on the disk and scooted back onto the couch just as the episode started.

"What in the hell?" Ed muttered just as the screen showed him and Alphonse standing in front of a gate in the rain out in front of Central HQ. The boy's jaw then proceeded to drop as the image of he and Al on the laptop proceeded to play out a scene that had taken place almost six months ago when he'd had his evaluation.

"That-that's my re-certification test where I fought the Colonel Bastard!!" he finally exploded, standing up and pointing at the computer screen accusingly. Taylor shrank back in the couch as Mustang stood up with his ignition-cloth gloves on while Crystal darted forward and shut off the laptop.

"What in the hell is going on here?!" the black-haired man snarled angrily, his dark eyes flashing beneath his messy bangs. Crystal quivered slightly as she hastily returned her precious FMA DVD into its case, but looked directly into the older man's eyes.

Taylor blinked. "I am so confused..." she admitted. "What's the big deal?"

Crystal rolled her eyes, though her stormy blue eyes stayed locked with Mustang's. "The big deal is that the military here is in charge of the government. Government secrets are the exact same as military secrets, and you know how governments get about secrets."

"Point taken." the redhead said grimly. "So we know-slash that, _you _know a whole lot of top-secret info, and now they're nervous about you spilling your guts?"

"Basically, yeah."

"They have a point." Taylor neatly dodged the shoe that Crystal threw in her vague direction, prepared for the retaliation. "Seriously, Crys, I've known ballerinas who keep better secrets than you, and you know how gossipy some of them can be."

Mustang's eyes narrowed as the two friends talked to each other. Neither had given them a decent explanation yet. "I'm giving you to the count of three..." he threatened, holding up his hand, and setting it to snap.

The tall brunette's eyes widened in fear, and Taylor noticed. The redhead snapped, "You want to know where we got that DVD? Fine. Any rabid anime-fan, like Crystal, can order it online for twenty bucks and have it sent straight to their homes. And you wouldn't believe how many of those psychos there are."

"Hey, I am not psycho!" Crystal said defensively. "And I so can keep a secret! I didn't tell any of them about your arm, didn't I?"

Taylor seemed to consider that, then shook her head. "Yeah, but that was from self-preservation. You knew I'd kill you if you blabbed." She looked over at Mustang carefully and then admitted, "Okay, so he'd probably kill you too. Maybe you can actually keep this secret."

"What about you?" Al interjected. The two girls stared at him for a moment, and he explained. "Can you keep a secret, Taylor?"

The short teenager shrugged. "I suppose so. I honestly don't have patience for secrets. Unless it involves music, I don't really care about it. And that isn't really the point now, is it? You want to know where we got that DVD, and now you know. Crystal actually has all sorts of info on you all, especially the pyro over there, the he/she we met in the alley, and you, Ed, though how she keeps it all straight, I have no clue."

"Taylor!" Crystal hissed warningly, her eyes wide.

"What? It's true. Heck, you have Horse-boy's picture plastered all over your walls, and your sketch book is full of pictures of those three." Taylor pointed out as she shut down her laptop so she could finally put it away in her bag.

"My sketch book!" Crystal had the expression on her face that usually signaled an epiphany. Taylor watched in amusement as the brunette dug in her bag till she pulled out the spiral sketch pad and a mechanical pencil. "I've been trying to fix the image of the transmutation circle that sent us here in my head, but I've been worried about getting any of the details wrong." she explained. "Now I can sketch it out and not have to worry about it anymore."

"What do you mean 'sent you here'?" Ed interjected suddenly, his golden eyes narrowed.

"And what's the point of that?" Taylor asked patiently, ignoring Ed's question.

"Well, duh. In order to get home again, we have to find out what this circle does exactly, and then make a reverse circle." Crystal pointed out, rolling her eyes.

The redhead frowned. "Can't you just do whatever that circle is backwards?"

"Not with alchemy." Edward said cryptically, looking over Crystal's shoulder as her pencil flew over the paper. Taylor arched an eyebrow in question, obviously not understanding the meaning behind the boy's statement.

"Umm… could you explain things a little more clearly, please?" she asked. "Unlike the rest of you, I have absolutely no idea as to what you're talking about."

"You'll get used to it," Hughes pointed out calmly. "All alchemists have a tendency to get sidetracked and start talking in their own language."

"We do not, Maes!" Mustang snapped angrily just as Ed gave a low hiss of disbelief when the design that Crystal was sketching became apparent.

"The Grand Arcanum!" the teenager spat as he immediately straightened up. Hughes smirked at Taylor as he chuckled and pointed over at Ed.

"I rest my case."

"Shut up Hughes," Mustang grumbled as he darted forward and abruptly snatched Crystal's sketchpad out of her hands.

"Hey!" the teenager protested as she attempted to retrieve her drawing from the older man. "Give that back!"

"Not until I've looked at this," the State Alchemist told her coolly, examining the drawing closely. "So, what else is in here?"

"Gahh! Nothing, absolutely nothing!" Crystal babbled frantically as she attempted to snatch her sketchbook from Mustang's hands, only to have the twenty-nine-year old place a hand on her face and hold her away from him as he flipped to the next page. The next few sketches showed him nothing of great importance, at least until he came to one clearly depicting him.

"What in the hell is this?!" he demanded angrily. Crystal yelped as she darted forward and managed to knock the sketchbook from Mustang's hands, sending all of the loose papers inside of it fluttering all over the room, including the one that the Colonel had been examining. This particular drawing landed right at Ed's feet, and the teenage alchemist stooped down to pick it up while Mustang started to chase Crystal around the room.

"What in the?" Ed began as he scrutinized the drawing carefully before he burst out laughing. Taylor and Al looked over at him curiously.

"What's so funny?" the dancer asked, and Ed immediately showed her the sketch as everyone else crowded around them to see what had made the alchemist laugh.

Taylor blinked in surprise before she too started to roar with laughter. The drawing depicted Mustang, wearing only a pair of boxers and his ignition-cloth gloves, standing in the middle of some background. That wasn't all though. In bold lettering above the alchemist's head were six simple words, and it was through those words that almost everyone collapsed laughing their head off: _'Roy Mustang is a sexy beast.'_

"Wow Roy, I didn't know that you liked younger women, especially ones that young!" Hughes called out, and was rewarded for his troubles by almost having his hair lit on fire.

"SHUT _UP_ MAES!!" Mustang snapped as he tried to incinerate the picture, only to have Crystal zip past Ed and rip it out of his hands before she shot out the front door. The Flame Alchemist immediately went after her.

"I DON'T WANNA DIE!!!" the girl yelled at the top of her lungs as she ran about in the rain, trying not to be burnt to a crisp.

Taylor rolled her eyes at her friend's antics as she watched from the dry safety of the doorway. "Crys, you aren't going to die." she pointed out. "I doubt the pyro's gloves work in the rain."

Edward whispered at her, "Don't tell her that. This is the most fun we've had in ages."

"Yeah, but this is also how I got a cold." she said, indicating the rain. "Running around in this kind of weather can't be healthy."

The only female officer in the room stepped up to where she was standing beside Taylor. "The colonel wouldn't dare hurt her." she assured the small girl before glaring at Mustang, "Right, Roy?"

Skidding to a halt, Mustang recognized that glint in Hawkeye's eye and said grouchily, "Yeah, well... I suppose I can't kill her." His expression became a little uplifted when he said, "However, until we know what all that the brunette knows, we'll have to take them into custody-."

"I hope you aren't suggesting that we lock up two young girls, one of whom is ill. Especially not after they assisted Fullmetal in the capture of the homunculus known as Envy," Hawkeye said sternly, fingering the end of her gun. As Mustang began to nervously stutter and Ed fumed, she added, "I suggest we place her in Fullmetal's care."

"WHAT?" Crystal, Mustang, and Ed protested loudly. The brunette girl had been easing her way back to the door, but now she stood completely still.

Hawkeye pulled back the clip of her gun, and as it snapped shut, all the protests stopped.

Taylor, who had been quiet ever since Hawkeye threatened Mustang, watched all of this happen with a slightly open mouth. Finally, she snapped it close and muttered, "I want to be her when I grow up..."

"But Taylor, you hate guns." Crystal pointed out, and then shriveled under her friend's glare. "Alright, never mind... Sheesh, this is going to be fun. Between you and Ed, I don't know who's got the worse temper, and you two don't seem to get along all the time-." She shut up as Taylor's glare intensified.

"Crys, unless you want to get a concussion, I suggest that you shut up," the smaller girl threatened. "If you don't, I just might see if I can borrow Miss Hawkeye's gun."

"You won't be able to do that, girl," Mustang interrupted. "You need both hands to handle a firearm."

Taylor looked like she had just been slapped in the face at the older man's comment, and Crystal and Ed immediately shot death glares at him while Hawkeye took matters into her own hands.

BAM BLAM BA-BAM BLAM!!

Mustang stood pressed up against the wall of the house with his legs spread apart, his entire body shaking as he stared apprehensively at the muzzle of the military-issued pistol pointed directly at him. Everyone else eyed the bullet holes surrounding the man and silently vowed never to get on the wrong side of the First Lieutenant.

"I _definitely_ want to be her when I grow up now," Taylor muttered, and received a nervous laugh from Crystal in response.

"Just don't shoot me," she responded faintly, and received a look that could only be described as purely satanic from the redhead. "Crap."

"First on my list are the moron who sent us here and Horse-boy. You'd have to wait a few minutes." Taylor threatened subtly with another death glare directed at Mustang.

"ANYWAY!" Crystal hastily changed the subject. "What was that about being placed in Ed's care?"

"Ain't happenin'." Taylor said at the exact moment when Ed said, "Over my dead body!" They glared at each other, till Ed finally looked away. Smugly, Taylor continued, "As I was saying, it ain't happenin'. First off, we'd kill each other within twenty-four hours." When Ed huffed, she gave him a dirty look and said, "Make that twelve hours."

Hughes chuckled and asked, "And second?"

"Second, I don't know anything; I just want to go home!" Taylor knew her voice held the faintest tinges of a whine for the first time since she was eight, but she didn't care. Her legs were shaking in her weakened state and she knew she should be in bed, but she didn't like the thought of them making decisions without her.

Unfortunately for her, Crystal noticed and said firmly, "You're about to collapse. At least go sit on the couch." With obvious reluctance, the redhead did as she was told, the rest of the group not far behind.

Once they were all settled, with Taylor sandwiched between a disgruntled Ed and a watchful Hawkeye on the couch and the others claiming seats in various parts of the room, Crystal said from her place on the floor by Taylor's feet, "We really do need to figure out what we're going to do. I need to do research to find the circle that was used on us, and Taylor needs somewhere to rest for a few days. And I swear, you won't hear a peep from either of us about the information we know concerning the military."

Hughes rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully. "I'd say you could stay here, but I try and keep my family far away from my work in the military. Even if you don't say anything, if anyone finds out you know information, my family would be in danger." Disheartened, Crystal nodded her head in understanding.

Taylor had hidden her face in her knees again. "Is there really no where else?" she asked sleepily, though obviously still upset at what their options currently were. The cold medicine that she had forced down before she came downstairs to dance was finally taking effect, and she wasn't sure how much longer she would be awake.

"Understand, please, that we are military officers. We practically live at HQ, and keep small apartments that are hardly livable." Hawkeye told the girl quietly. "The Elric brothers rent a small house whenever they are here in Central, and I know they have a spare room. They are also the best protection we can offer, if that homunculus escapes and tries to come after you."

Sighing, Taylor muttered reluctantly, "I understand."

Ed opened his mouth to argue, but his brother clapped his hand over his mouth. When the blonde looked up at the suit of armor curiously, he pointed back to the girl. She was barely staying upright, already practically asleep. Grumbling in annoyance, he let his problems with her drop...for the moment. "Alright, they can stay with us. But only until she's better! Then you all better find someone else to baby-sit them!"

Crystal beamed at him. "I knew you would come around! Besides, you'd be seeing me all the time anyway. I'm going to hole up in the library, and that's where you all have been doing research on the Philosopher's-." She finally managed to shut her trap as she noticed Ed's eyes getting wider with each word she said.

"Oh, crap."

Ed immediately shot out of his seat and dragged Crystal down to eye level with him by the front of her dress, his golden eyes burning with barely restrained fury.

"How the hell did you know that?!" he hissed. "Who or what in the hell are you?!"

"I-I'm just-" she stammered nervously. "Look, I'm just a regular kid, okay?"

"With knowledge about my private life!"

"But-"

"No buts! Spill, now! Especially since you're the one who seems to know so much about us!!"

Crystal stared at the irate blonde in front of her for a few moments before she glanced over at Taylor pleadingly, only to see that her best friend was sound asleep and leaning up against Al.

"Um... Well..." Crystal hedged, trying to think of a way out of this. Finally, she joked half-heartedly, "Couldn't you let go of me? Didn't your mom teach you manners before she died?"

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say. Only Hughes's quick action saved Crystal from falling as Ed threw her away. He then clapped his hands, transforming his automail arm into a blade. Her stormy blue eyes grew wide and she muttered low enough that Hughes could barely heard her, "That would be so cool if he wasn't intending to kill me."

Crystal wisely started to circle him, keeping an eye on his shoulders incase he went in for the kill, seeing as how they would give away his movements. Just when he lunged, she hid herself behind Armstrong, the only one really tall enough for her to do so.

"See now, young Edward, there's no need to get rough with the young girl." Armstrong said as he blocked his blade. "She didn't mean any harm."

"Says who?" he growled and Crystal winced.

She said defensively, "I can't help randomly saying things I'm not suppose to know! I don't really know what's common info and what's a secret, so is it really surprising it comes out of no where? Plus, I talk all the time about this stuff, though no one really understands what I'm saying. I'm used to rambling at Taylor, and I know she doesn't pay attention to a word I say. Heck, half of the time I'll be yammering away and she'll have her headphones on listening to classical music, though what she sees in that crap, I have no idea-." she shut up when she realized that everyone was giving her the look she usually got when she rambled.

Al spoke up from where he was, "Brother, leave her alone." When Ed turned around to look at him in astonishment, he continued, "We really need to get them home, while the rain is in a lull." No one had noticed the rain had stopped falling, though it was still overcast. When Edward started to argue, he said patiently, "It would be better to interrogate her at home anyway."

The short teenage boy seemed to consider that for a while, and then said grumpily, "Alright. But you!" he pointed his finger at her angrily. "Not another word about our mother! Or what we're looking for!"

"Sir, yes sir." Crystal said, rolling her eyes as she mocked him. Ed scowled darkly at her, but chose not to reply. Instead, he looked over at his younger brother, who was currently looking at Taylor, who had managed to stay sound asleep throughout the chaos.

"So, how are we going to get her there?" he asked. Al glanced up at him and shrugged slightly.

"I can carry her," the fifteen-year old offered.

Ed nodded thoughtfully, and Crystal chose this opportunity to run upstairs and grab her and Taylor's stuff, hastily changing back into her mostly-dry clothing and throwing their stuff back into their respective bags before running back downstairs once again.

"Umm… I left the clothes that Gracia loaned us on the bed," she offered to Hughes, who merely smiled and gave her a wave of acknowledgement to show that he had heard her before he resumed his conversation with Mustang, Hawkeye, and Armstrong. She turned around to look at Ed and Al, and was treated to the incredibly odd sight of seeing the animated suit of armor cradling the redhead's sleeping form in his arms. Ed, who noticed her return, arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest.

"What are you gawking at?" he snapped, and Crystal rolled her eyes in response.

"Sorry," she grumped. "I didn't realize that I wasn't allowed to look at my friend."

"Not when my brother's holding her!" Ed growled. "For all I know, you're in league with the homunculi!!"

"I am not! Taylor and I are both human!"

"Then you might have brainwashed her into _thinking_that she's your friend!!"

"Hey, I resent that!"

"Right now, with all of that weird crap that you've showed us, you resemble that!!"

Suddenly, without warning, a massive metal fist crashed down on first Ed's head, and then Crystal's. Al glared at the two while they ruefully rubbed at the large bumps that appeared on the tops of their heads.

"Both of you, knock it off!" he ordered sternly.

"Al, what's gotten into you?" Ed demanded, a scowl seemingly permanent on his face.

The possessed armor said firmly, "These girls are in our care now, brother. Stop being so paranoid. And you, Crystal. You should know better than to antagonize him."

"Yeah, I know..." she muttered."Sorry." Edward just continued to glare at the floor.

Sighing, Al asked Crystal, "Do you have everything?" The brunette nodded, so he said, "Then let's go." With a sharp turn, the suit of armor walked out the door, Crystal and Ed not far behind.


	7. Chapter 7

**(loud thumping noises can be heard from the closet)**

**Ithil and LNF: (share looks of disbelief)**

**Wandering Hitokiri: (looks sheepish)**

**LNF: You still have Sano looked in there?**

**Wandering Hitokiri: Yeah...**

**Ithil: Even with finals?**

**Wandering Hitokiri: Yes, okay? I'm clingy!**

**Ed: (mutters) That's an understatement...**

**Wandering Hitokiri: Do you want to repeat that, small fry?**

**(LNF and Ithil sigh as the two start fighting again)**

**Al: (shakes his head) LNF and Wandering Hitokiri don't own FMA or Sano-.**

**Wandering Hitokiri: (pokes her head out of the cloud of dust she and Ed have formed) You speak blasphemy.**

**LNF: Ignore her.**

**Al: (speaks over all of them) But they do own Taylor, Crystal, and their families!**

**Chapter Seven**

**A.k.a. Arguments, break-ins, and allergies, oh my!**

The odd looking group walked down the streets of Central, though not without gaining many curious looks. Ed made a point to glare at anyone whose eyes stayed on them for too long, while Crystal hovered anxiously beside Al, keeping a close eye on Taylor. The fifteen-year-old watched this in amusement, then finally said, "Crystal, relax. I'm not going to drop her."

"I'm not worried about that! I'm worried that she'll get even worse!" Crystal couldn't help wailing. "I'm already on Cal's death wish list, and I don't want to go further up it!"

Ed snorted. "Her brother can't be that tough!"

"He's as big as her dad, and he was the state champion in wrestling in high school. Not to mention he played and continues to play football in college." Crystal said. "I think he could stop a rampaging bull if he put his mind to it." Both of the brothers sweat dropped. The brunette tilted her head to the side and added, "Actually, Cal is like a strange combo of Armstrong and Sig."

"You know Sig?" Al said, stunned.

"The same way I knew you and Ed before today." Crystal explained.

Ed grumbled something under his breath that sounded something like "freaky stalking girl". The tall girl glared at him. "Do you want to repeat that so I can hear you?" she growled, practically towering over him.

"Hey, back off, you freakin' giant!" he snapped.

"She must have drunk her milk, brother." Al couldn't help teasing.

Ed, as per usual, went into a rage, "MILK! MILK IS THE MOST DISGUSTING PRODUCT EVER! I WON'T EVER DRINK IT! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY ABOUT IT MAKING YOU GROW-"

"It didn't make Crystal grow, either." Taylor's sleepy comment made Ed pause and Al look at the redhead in his arms curiously while Crystal averted her gaze, blushing. Muddled green eyes closed again as she explained, "The entire Schraff family is lactose intolerant."

"Lactose what?" Ed asked, baffled.

"I'm allergic to milk." Crystal muttered. As the brothers stared at her and Taylor drifted back to sleep, she continued to say in an embarrassed manner, "I can't touch any kind of dairy product either, except yogurt. We keep soy milk and orange juice for breakfast in the fridge cause of that." Now the brunette rolled her eyes. "Taylor doesn't complain, 'cause she drinks that stuff anyway. My brothers hate the taste of plain soy milk, so occasionally my mom will buy the chocolate kind, but usually they just stick to the orange juice."

Al asked, "What about cheeses?"

Crystal shook her head. "Can't go near them, either. Ruins sandwiches, but meh."

"Butter?"

"Nope."

Ed stared at Crystal for a few moments before he pulled a face.

"That sucks. How the heck do you eat toast then?"

"With jam, dummy."

"I'm not a dummy!" Ed growled angrily, and Crystal stuck her tongue out at him in response.

"You sure act like it sometimes," she retorted. Ed clenched both of his hands into fists as he glared at the taller girl, his golden eyes narrowed dangerously. Al let out an exasperated sigh as he shook his head.

"Brother, calm down," he muttered, and Crystal proceeded to pull a face at the State Alchemist as he glowered at her. "Crystal, stop antagonizing him."

"Yes 'Dad'," Crystal muttered sarcastically under her breath as she rolled her eyes, and Ed immediately swatted her upside the head with his automail hand the moment Al turned his back to them.

Al sighed and muttered to the still sleeping Taylor, "It's like dealing with five-year-olds."

Six blocks, four arguments between Crystal and Ed, two of which woke Taylor up enough that she gave them "killer glares of doom", which hushed them for awhile, later, they had finally arrived at the small house the Elric brothers rented.

"Ah, it's good to be home!" Ed said as he opened the door, only to freeze, his jaw dropping.

"Brother, what's wrong?" Al asked, only to look for himself and stare in horror. Crystal peaked around the armor curiously and wrinkled her nose at what she saw.

The entire place had been ransacked.The couch cushions had been ripped open with some kind of knife, the books that were once on the bookshelf were now all over the floor, papers were everywhere, wooden furniture was overturned... In short, it was a mess.

Crystal joked weakly, "Who did you all piss off?" Edward snarled and threw the bags he still carried at her. She caught them with a loud "Oof!", barely managing not to get herself knocked over. Al gave him a pointed look, but didn't say anything this time.

Carefully, the suit of armor righted the couch as best he could and set the redhead down on it.Ed was looking at the mess carefully, trying to find a rhyme or reason as to all the mass destruction.Crystal stood by uneasily, wondering how she could help, when Taylor suddenly woke up with a loud sneeze that echoed through out the room. The brothers both jumped a mile high, then whirled around and stared. The tall brunette, used to the large sneezes from her small friend, just looked at her curiously as the sneezing continued on.

"You all don't have a cat, do you?" Crystal finally questioned as Taylor's sneezing came to a brief stop.

"No, not unless..." Ed turned and gave Al a pointed glare. The suit of armor quickly held up his hands defensive and shook his head.

"Well, then why am I sneezing?" Taylor snapped, sniffing.

"Cause you have a cold?" Edward leered, only to have a nearby book get thrown at his head. He barely managed to avoid it. "What does a cat have to do with you sneezing?" he grumbled, only to pause as the almost audible click of him figuring it out happened. "Oh sheesh, you're allergic to cats?"

"They make me sneeze like... like... ACHOO!" Yet another violently loud sneeze came from the little dancer. "Like no other..." she finally managed to mumble as everyone else tried to calm their racing hearts.

"Maybe this was caused by cat burglar, quite literally?" Crystal suggested, only to have a book thrown her way this time.

"Not funny, Crys…" Taylor sniffed as she wiped her sleeve across her now-running nose. "Aw crap, now my nose is getting all drippy."

Ed arched an eyebrow as he looked at Al over his shoulder. "You're _sure_ that there's not a cat in here, Al?"

"No Brother, not unless one snuck in," the fifteen-year old admitted.

"Oh, I didn't think about that," the teenage alchemist admitted. Crystal sighed and shook her head as she knelt down and started gathering up stray papers, stacking them into neat piles before setting them down on a small footstool.

"And they call you a child prodigy," she muttered sarcastically under her breath as she took a peek at the scrawled notes and diagrams covering the pages that she was picking up. "Hey Ed, did you write all these?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"Your handwriting sucks."

Crystal was forced to duck behind a toppled chair as both Ed and Taylor flung books at her, both for exactly the same reasons.

"Shut up!" Ed spat angrily. "I can't help it if I have to write with my left hand!"

"Don't even go there, Crystal ! My handwriting stinks too!" Taylor snapped.

"Agh! Alright, geez, I'm sorry, okay?"

Taylor arched an eyebrow skeptically, but was interrupted from giving her friend a death glare by the sneezing fit that hit her. Once it finally subsided again, she shook her head and made a funny face, which resulted in Crystal laughing. Some of the visible tension in the room faded as the Elric brothers started to straighten up their house, with some help from Crystal.

When Crystal, being the poor fool that she is, opened the cabinets of the kitchen, and then the fridge, before she blanched.The state of affairs would have put a college boys' dorm to shame. "When was the last time you were home, again?"

"A week, give or take a few days." Ed answered absentmindedly.

"So this place could have been a mess like this for a week, and you wouldn't have known?" Crystal said, obviously in disbelief.

Al explained, "We take everything of real importance with us when we travel. Everything that's left here is easily fixed or replaced."

"Does everyone know you travel often?" Taylor asked suddenly. As the side effects of her cold medicine faded, she was able to think more clearly, and she wasn't liking what she found.

Ed, however, just stared at her like she was nuts. "Why would anyone care how often we traveled?" He then glared at Crystal. "Besides freaks like her, anyway."

Even as Crystal sputtered indignantly, Taylor said thoughtfully, "Because it would give them a chance to look for something specific. Is anything missing? Any kind of note, or other piece of information?"

"Not that I noticed."

Crystal quickly caught on to what her friend was thinking. "You think that somehow that psychopath from woods is from Amestris, needed sacrifices for whatever he was doing, so he came to our world and stumbled upon us?"

"Close to it, though I may be wrong. After all, he obviously didn't need human sacrifices or he would have been tracking down humans rather than stray pets, which is why I think he came here fairly recently. He probably had cat hair all over him from..." Taylor's voice drifted off as she shivered at the memory of the stone alter in the middle of the woods.

The Elric brothers looked between the two, until Crystal said in uncharacteristic seriousness, "He wanted to do something that wasn't allowed here. He needed to perform the actual transmutation where the military wouldn't chance upon it, so he got clever and came to our world. How he got there was by something here in the house."

"Not quite. I think what he wanted to do was here in the house. He was trying to summon a specific thing, remember? I can't recall the name. You know all this random stuff about the Elrics, Crys. What have the encountered that makes this madman think they can help him?" Taylor questioned.

"Recently, they ran into a guy using a false Philosopher's Stone." Crystal pointed out. "Then there's the homunculi. Not to mention the Ishbal thing..."

"Can you quit talking like we're not here?" Ed grumbled. The two friends whipped their head around to look at him, having gotten so drawn into their conversation they forgot who else was there, a fairly common occurrence with them.

"Whoops, sorry about that," Taylor muttered sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her head. Ed rolled his eyes as he straightened up and crossed his arms over his chest, fixing both girls with an intense look.

"Okay, I think you two owe us some answers, and I want 'em _now_," he stated seriously, golden eyes narrowed dangerously. "You two show up out of nowhere while we're fighting Envy, show us a bunch of weird technology, have detailed knowledge about our personal lives, and talk about Amestris like you've never been here. So what I want to know is what the hell is going on?!!"

Taylor looked at the blonde for a few moments before she blinked and pointed a finger at Crystal. "Umm… half of what you just said applies to her, not me."

"I don't care!" Ed snapped. "What I want is a straight answer, and I want it now!!"

Taylor looked over at Crystal before an evil smirk crossed her face and she patted her friend on the shoulder.

"I believe that you just volunteered for that job," she remarked as she gave the taller girl a crooked grin. Crystal stared at her in disbelief for several moments before she was finally able to voice her protest.

"Why do I have to do it?!"

"Because you're the one who got us into this mess," Taylor replied just as she broke out into yet another sneezing fit. Once she stopped, she pulled a tissue out from her pocket and wiped her nose with it before she continued. "If you hadn't been so nosey, I'd still be in bed and asleep right now, or maybe eating breakfast with Cal."

Crystal made a low noise in the back of her throat as she fixed the redhead with a glare.

"I hate you sometimes."

"Oh, bite my biscuits."

"W-what?" Ed stuttered before he burst out laughing. "What the hell was that?"

Crystal and Taylor both gave the boy an odd look before the dancer responded.

"You've never heard that before?" Taylor asked skeptically, a reddish eyebrow raised delicately. Ed stared at her, still chuckling, for a moment, before he shook his head.

"No, I haven't."

"Taylor says it sometimes instead of saying 'kiss my ass'," Crystal interjected. "She usually saves most of her cussing for people who really tick her off. Take Envy for example; that was the first time I've heard her cuss in weeks."

"Crys, stop stalling and just tell him," Taylor grumbled as she reached out and swatted the taller girl upside the head. "Meh, you're so easy to see through sometimes."

The tall brunette stuck her tongue out in retaliation. Taylor just looked at her coolly, till her friend sighed and gave in.

Hesitantly, Al looked between the dejected Crystal and the still-amused Ed and asked Taylor, "Would you like to go upstairs and rest, while they talk?"

"Yeah, I probably won't be much help in telling the story anyway." With an annoyed sigh, Taylor let Al carry her up the stairs. The upper floor of the house consisted of a small bedroom with two beds, and an equally small bathroom.Al set Taylor down on the bed, and then sat down on the floor beside her.

It was silent for a few moments, and then Al asked, "What was your mother like?"

Stunned, Taylor stared at him for a second, wondering how he knew about her parents...till she remembered that she had slept almost the entire walk here, and figured that Ed must have clued Al in. Then, with a sad smile, she started to explain, "She was blonde, with bright blue eyes. Even though she was as tiny as I am, she had all the grace of a queen. She was a dancer when she was young, like me. However, she was lucky enough to train in the town of ballet's birth: Paris.

"My mother was French, and lived and trained her entire career with a Parisian company. She became one of their primaries at the unheard of age of nineteen. Her name was known throughout France. Then, one performance of Romeo and Juliet, with her as Juliet, her partner dropped her. They had practiced the lift a hundred times, but his grip was wrong that night. My mother broke her knee. By the time she had healed, another dancer had been dancing her part for months, and the public had grown to love the new dancer. Rather than get stuck in the chorus line, she became a recruiter.

"She traveled all over the world, finding promising talent and sending it back to Paris. Eventually, she came to America, and met my father. I guess you could say the rest was history. Mama never forgot where she was from. When we were little, she would speak as much French to us as English. I still speak French fluently, though Cal's forgotten most of his.

"Our grandparents on that side of the family disowned her when she married Daddy. I don't think they even know that Mama died." Tilting her head to the side, Taylor said thoughtfully, "She always seemed removed from the rest of us... At least, until I started to dance. Then that missing part of her found a connection with me. After that, we were always close. Some days, I wonder if she really loved my father, or if she saw him as her only choice. Whatever it may be, I think she was happy, in the end." Sighing, Taylor asked Al, "What about your mother?"

Al looked thoughtful for a second before he responded.

"She… she was our entire life. Our dad left our mom when Ed and I were really little, so I barely remember him," the fifteen-year old offered, and Taylor made a face.

"Yeah, Ed mentioned that, and his _exact_ sentiments about your dad," she pointed out. "I've never heard anyone say that about one of their parents before."

"Brother hates our father with a passion," Al told the redhead as he gave a weary shrug. "I think that's because he partially blames Mom's death on him."

"Well that would explain a lot," Taylor muttered dryly. Al nodded in agreement before he continued.

"Our mom had rich brown hair and green eyes; to us, she was the most wonderful person in the world, and we loved her with everything we had. She was the one who first inspired us to do alchemy, and her praise was what encouraged us to keep going. But she always seemed sad whenever one of us mentioned Dad, which is part of the reason why Brother hates him so much."

Taylor didn't say anything as she looked at Alphonse intently, and the possessed suit of armor seemed to grow a little distant as he sunk back into his memories.

"When Mom died, Brother and I realized why she had been so happy whenever we had done alchemy; it reminded her of Dad. We were nine and ten when that happened, and we came to Central a little over a year later."

"Wait a second, how old are you then?" Taylor wondered, confusion evident on her face.

"Fifteen."

"…_Damn_. You sure had one heck of a growth spurt."

Al stared at the small dancer for a few seconds before he started to chuckle.

"Don't say that to Brother. He gets mad whenever someone thinks that I'm the older brother, or that I'm him," the teenager pointed out. Taylor gave him a grin and opened her mouth to say something just as an angry yell, followed by a loud crash, came from downstairs.

"Oh, hell," Taylor sighed. "Wonder what Crystal did this time..."

"It may have been Brother's fault." Al protested.

"No offense, but bullshit. We both know it is most likely Crystal said something stupid. Again." Shaking her head, the redhead hurriedly stood up. She wavered a little as she got lightheaded, but shook it off quickly and hurried down the stairs, Al right behind her.

The two came downstairs to find that Ed had Crystal cornered, his automail arm once again in its blade shape.

"Can we not leave you two alone for five minutes?" Taylor exclaimed, exasperated. Immediately, the blonde morphed his arm back, looking very sheepish like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. The teenage girl wouldn't look at anyone, and kept fiddling with the ends of her hair.

Al asked eagerly, "Did you get the answers you wanted, Brother?"

Ed looked at Al for a moment, and then his eyes drifted first to Taylor, then to Crystal. "Yeah... I don't like them, but I got them." The brunette cowered, her gaze sheepish.

"Why do I think this has something to do with the homosexual palm tree?" Taylor sighed.

An expression of disgust crossed Ed's face. "Of all the people for her to be obsessed with..."

"Much agreed. Though personally, I think Mustang ranks right up there with him." Ed and Taylor shared smiles.

Crystal looked between her best friend and the teenage alchemist. "Okay, if you two are done flirting with each other, I really should go do some research on that circle."

Both teens stared at Crystal for a moment, before they could react. Taylor immediately flushed at the suggestion, being a shy person when it came to the opposite gender. Ed just glowered at Crystal, obviously still annoyed from the answers to his questions and not appreciating her comment about him.

"I still say there's no way in hell that you two can be from another world," he grumbled darkly as he scowled at the brunette. "It's not possible, even with alchemy."

"Alchemy can't explain everything, Edward," Crystal countered, and had a rolled-up ball of paper thrown at her head in response. Taylor just sighed and rolled her eyes while Al did pretty much the same thing from where he was standing.

"Brother, why don't I take her to the library instead while you stay home and keep an eye on Taylor?" the fifteen-year old suggested. "That way you two don't try to kill each other."

"I wouldn't _kill_ her, Al," the teenage alchemist muttered grouchily as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I'd just turn her over to Mustang instead."

"And then I'd be barbecued instead of being stabbed to death," Crystal responded dryly. "Gee, as much fun as that sounds, I think I'll pass."

"Crys, you brought this all on yourself with that big mouth of yours," Taylor pointed out as she sat down on the couch, carefully avoiding one of the huge holes ripped into the seats. "You've got no one to blame here but yourself."

"I thought that friends were supposed to support each other."

"Not when you're the one who landed us in a mountain of trouble with the military of some foreign country that exists in one of your stupid anime shows."

"Your confidence in me is overwhelming."

"Yeah, which is why I'm about two seconds away from introducing you to the ground if you don't stop saying the wrong things."

Crystal gave a fake sniffle as she adopted what she hoped looked like a hurt expression. "Taylor, you wound me."

"No I don't; you're just saying that in the hopes that I'll take pity on you or something."

"Damn."

Rolling her eyes, Taylor held out her good arm. Smiling, Crystal sat down beside her, and Taylor wrapped her arm around her in a one-arm hug. "I knew you loved me." the brunette commented.

"Whatever."

Ed rolled his eyes at the two. "Give me one reason to let you be seen in public with her." he told his brother with a sneer.

"She isn't that bad. Taylor and you just seem to bring out her strange side." Al half-lied. "Besides, one of us really needs to do some kind of research today, or else it would be wasting time."

The blonde teenager's scowl only deepened. He hated to waste time. "Fine. I'll stay with the redhead. Just don't stay out after dark, 'kay? You never know who's wondering the streets at night."

"Sure brother." Al grabbed Crystal by the arm before she had time to protest. She was barely able to grab her bag before they were out the door.

Once they were half a block down the street, she stopped letting herself be dragged and said, "What was that about?"

"Just avoiding another argument." he said. Thinking it over for a second, she shrugged and followed him willingly.

Meanwhile, Ed grabbed a nearby wooden chair and set it down across from the couch, sitting in it backwards so he had somewhere to rest his arms as he watched Taylor. She was scribbling down something in a notebook, occasionally checking the volume in her hands. "What's all that for?" he asked, curious.

"Book report due in English. Technically, I don't need to do it till next week, but I'm horrid at English, so I have Crystal check my papers before I turn them in. Plus, I have to type them one-handed, which takes forever," Taylor said absently, finishing her last paragraph.

Ed's curiosity was peaked, "What book?"

"It had to be a piece of foreign literature. Because I can read the original language, I chose The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas." Taylor finished her paragraph with a sigh, and then closed the notebook. "Though now that I'm finished, I don't know what I'm going to do."

"I'd ask you to help clean, but I don't think that would work. Don't you have anything else to do in your bag?"

"Just breaking in a new pair of toe-shoes, but that requires a cinder block, something I doubt you have on hand. Plus, I don't think my hands are steady enough for it."

His head hurting from trying to figure out what a cinder block had to do with breaking in a pair of shoes, Ed gave up questioning her, and instead began to silently start making repairs via alchemy to pieces of furniture that had been damaged by the ransacking. Watching him with half-hearted curiosity, Taylor wasn't surprised when she drifted off.

"Wow..." Crystal muttered from the other side of Central, in front of the military headquarters. "This place is huge!"

"You seem surprised," Al said jokingly. Crystal looked over at him and gave the boy a sheepish grin.

"Well, I know that this place was supposed to be really big, but I didn't realize that it was this big!"

"Oh God, not her again," a familiar voice groaned, and both teens turned around to see Mustang standing right behind them with a visible scowl on his face. Crystal immediately darted behind the safety of Alphonse's armored bulk, eying the Flame Alchemist warily.

"Hello Colonel," Al greeted cheerfully, ignoring the fact that he currently had a teenage girl cowering behind him. Mustang arched an eyebrow as he stared at the younger Elric for several long moments before he even dared to voice his comments.

"Alphonse, what is she doing here?" the older man growled, indicating at Crystal with a finger still encased in his ignition-cloth gloves.

The teenagers shared nervous looks. "Well, Colonel..."


	8. Chapter 8

**Ed: *stomps in, dragging a tied up Wandering Hitokiri***

**Wandering Hitokiri: LET ME GO, LET ME GO!**

**Ithil & LNF: 0_0**

**Al: She's alive?**

**Ed: Yeah. She was being held captive by some Genjo person…**

**Wandering Hitokiri: Who said ANYTHING about being held captive?**

**LNF: Genjo as in Genjo Sanzo? From Saiyuki? Okay, that makes sense…**

**Ithil: I'm willing to bet money Kakashi-sensei was in on this too…**

**Wandering Hitokiri: Does it matter? I want to go back! LET ME GO!**

**Ed: No way, you've been gone way too long!**

**Wandering Hitokiri: So would any girl!**

**Ed: Any girl doesn't have this much stuff on hold!**

**(LNF and Ithil share a package of peanut M&M's, watching curiously)**

**LNF: My money is on the midget.**

**(Ed whirls around)**

**Ed: *deadly soft* Midget?**

**LNF: EEEP! ITHIL, HELP!**

**Ithil: *sighs* These two do not own FMA at all. Crystal and Taylor alone belong to them. And thank you to Ruberman2025 for getting this up and going again.**

**Chapter Eight:**

"Come on, Alphonse. What's going on?" Mustang demanded, his voice firm. "This is a military headquarters, not a playground."

"Hey!" Crystal protested, but he continued to speak over her.

"We have serious concerns here, specifically a mass murderer who is determined to kill all state alchemists. We don't have time for this."

"I quite agree, Colonel."

All arguments froze at the calm voice that interrupted the conversation. Crystal's eyes grew wide as a military man with an eye patch came walking over.

"Perhaps you should let these fine young people continue on their way, and we'll continue on ours."

"Yes, sir!" Mustang answered, though not without another hard look at Al and Crystal. Crystal bit down on her lip, hard, as she tried not to either scream or do anything else that would attract attention to herself as she watched Fuhrer Bradley, better known as the homunculus Pride, walk towards them. Even though she tried not to show it, the sixteen-year old was quaking in her shoes.

This was the person who killed his own son without a shred of remorse, and was the reason Mustang lost an eye later on. And he was smiling at her like there was absolutely nothing wrong.

"Hello there," he said warmly, and Crystal had to mentally remind herself that people who tried to grab another person's sword and behead them with it were usually either shot on sight or thrown into the psycho ward. "Alphonse, is this a friend of yours?"

"Yes sir," the boy answered as he gave a small polite bow. "This is Crystal, and she's staying with Brother and I for a few days."

Mustang arched an eyebrow at the 'friend' bit, but other than that remained silent. He casually observed the expression of sheer and utter terror that crossed the brunette's face for one brief moment as she looked at Fuhrer Bradley, before it vanished without a trace.

Crystal gave a bow of her own as she looked at the Fuhrer, and fought to keep her expression neutral as she looked at the older man.

"Pleased to meet you sir," she said in her best 'humble' voice. "I was just asking Al what the library was like. I've heard that it has one of the most extensive collections on alchemy known in existence."

"Ah, I see. Interested in alchemy are you? Are you studying to take our state alchemist exam this year?" the Fuhrer asked kindly, obviously trying to put the girl at ease.

Forcing a smile, Crystal said, "I'm thinking about it. Al and Ed have offered to help me prepare. Nothing better than having one of the best state alchemists for a friend, huh?" _'Not...'_ she thought, lying through her teeth.

Al looked at her in confusion as well, certain that they were here to find a transmutation circle, not study. Mustang also looked bewildered, though neither the suit of armor nor the colonel said as much to the Fuhrer.

"Yes, Fullmetal is one of our elite alchemists, despite his young age. He is a good person to look to for advice. Though of course, I understand Alphonse here didn't do too bad on the written exam himself, just choosing not to participate in the practical exam," Fuhrer Bradley noted, nodding his head in Al's direction. "Hopefully, I will be anding you an assignment this time next year, Miss Crystal. Now, Colonel, if I may speak with you a moment?"

"Yes, sir!" Mustang answered, giving Al one last warning look before following the Fuhrer off in another direction.

Crystal waited until the two men were far enough away from her and Al before she bolted off as fast as she could in the direction of the library, wanting to get as far away from that… abomination that had the gall to call himself a human being. The sixteen-year old crashed into an unexpected wall in the corridor as she hastily rounded a corner and collapsed to the ground in a heap, her entire body shaking like a leaf in a hurricane as she wrapped her arms around herself in a futile attempt to ward off the chill that crept over her.

"It's real… oh my god it's real," she whispered in obvious horror as she stared down at the stone floor beneath her with wide blue-gray eyes. "It's not a game or fantasy anymore… Everything here… it's real, and we could all get killed… just because of… one person and their thirst for immortality…"

With that realization, Crystal curled up into the fetal position and huddled up against the wall as she shuddered. She didn't know how long she stayed there, at least several minutes, before the familiar loud clanging sound of armored footsteps sounding along the corridor snapped her out of her daze.

"Crystal, there you are! You ran off so fast... Crystal, are you alright?" Al asked when he found the emotionally disturbed girl. With a clank of his armor, he knelt down beside her, touching her shoulder as gently as he could.

Not daring to look at him, she forced her voice to sound normal, "I'm fine, Al..."

"You don't seem fine. You look scared."

"Me scared? Ha!" Standing up, Crystal put on a show of false bravado. "It takes more than a couple of military goons to scare me!" She took on a Superman posed, than winked at Al. "So let's go find that circle, kay?"

Al stood, and then met Crystal right in the eye. She began to get nervous as he got right into her face, the sweat beginning to form.

"Alright!" he finally said, pulling back and tugging on her hand. "This way to the library!" Breathing a sigh of relief, Crystal followed him willingly.

XxX

Stirring from her nap, Taylor grumbled and sat up, her body not quite as achy as it had been when she fell asleep. "Ed...?" she called softly, not seeing her fellow midget anywhere, and not liking waking up alone in a still unfamiliar place. "Was it all a dream...?" she thought out loud almost inaudibly when he still didn't appear.

"Was what all a dream?"

Taylor jumped up with a startled yelp and spun around to see Ed standing behind her with his arms crossed and a somewhat confused look on his face, a golden eyebrow arched quizzically.

"Sheesh, you sure are jumpy," he commented, and Taylor frowned as she stood up and dusted herself off, noting offhandedly that the room was now in a far better state of repair than it had been earlier.

"Sorry…" she muttered semi-sarcastically. "It's just that… well, I thought that everything that happened since last night was all just a dream. I guess not."

"Meh..." Ed muttered. "Crazy female..."

The young girl rolled her eyes, but said nothing in response. She wasn't in the mood to argue with him. Resting her arms on her knees, then lying her head down on her folded up arms, she tried to figure out where to go from here. Her cold would be gone in a couple of days, but she doubted anyone would know how to send them home in such a short amount of time. That meant Crystal and her would need to stay in Central for a little while longer, but with no place to stay... Or at least, they couldn't stay here.

Things were calm between Taylor and Ed for now, but that didn't mean it would last; it certainly wouldn't when Crystal came back. Al couldn't be expected to be the mediator all the time, either. No, it would be better if they left. The questions were where to and how would they support themselves. Dancers, or at least the non-sleazy ones, didn't make much money. And while Crystal was handy with anything techy, there was no guarantee that her skills would hold true in a world full of strange mechanical advances.

That thought led her to thinking about Ed's "automail" arm and leg. A scowl tugged at her face as she contemplated it. In many ways, this strange world seemed to be behind hers technologically speaking, but these mechanical limbs were more advanced than anything she had ever seen.

She couldn't help the brief feeling of jealousy towards Ed, though she was quick to suppress it. It wasn't his fault his arm was more advanced than hers. In fact, he had the added difficulty of missing his leg as well. That thought helped her bury her sour feelings, though it led her to ask quite randomly, "Ed, where and how did you get your automail?"

"Huh?" the boy asked as he looked over at her, his eyes wide as he held a damaged book in his right hand. "Why do you ask… wait, never mind."

"Seriously though, where did you get it?"

"I have a mechanic in my hometown that specializes in automail. She's also my best friend. Al and I have known her forever," the teenager admitted with a shrug as he straightened up and gave Taylor a speculative look. "She and her grandmother run an automail shop. I'll tell you right now that the surgery alone is painful as hell though. Apparently I was the only one who ever made it through it without screaming my head off."

"Why is that?"

"Because they have to re-attach all of your nerves to the wires that connect to your automail port, which is implanted into your body," Ed explained with a wry grimace. "It allows your mechanic to attach the automail limb to the rest of your body, but also enables them to remove the prosthetic for repairs, refitting, or cleaning. When they put it back in though, it feels like you got your arm slammed in a car door."

"So it hurts?"

"Like hell."

Taylor seemed to consider that, her head only slightly tilted to the side. She had raised her head during his little speech, but now she lowered it back down on to her knees.

"Huh," she said simply, obviously not wanting to elaborate further. Her mind was taking in to consideration what Ed had just described, trying to see if she was even slightly as willing to go through that kind of pain.

Her silence only annoyed the hell out of the blonde alchemist.

"'Huh'? That's all you have to say? 'Huh'!" he practically growled at her, "I just described an excruciating, albeit helpful surgery, for anyone who has lost a limb like us, and that's all you have to say?!"

The redhead blinked in response to his sudden outburst, but remained silent. In part, it truly was to annoy him. She had nothing to do, wasn't the slightest bit sleepy, but felt as weak as a kitten. Her options for entertainment were limited, and driving Ed to the point of insanity was immediately available.

"Well?" Ed demanded, "Say something, damn it!"

When she only blinked back at him, he threw the already damaged book down and stalked over to her, getting right in her face. "Has that cold made you deaf or something? I asked you something! Hello?!"

It took everything Taylor had to keep her face straight and resist the urge to laugh. She only blinked again, though her eyes reflected her amusement. The only two people she had ever gotten comfortable with enough to screw with like this were her older brother and Crystal. However, Ed was making it well worth her trouble.

Fuming, Ed leaned back and said arrogantly, "I see, you're trying to annoy me. Well it won't work! I have an iron will, and can last longer than you!" He stared right back at her, amber gold eyes locking with emerald green. The silence was stretched and tense, their stares only broken by one of them blinking.

Finally, though one of them cracked.

"Damn it, would you just say something?!" Ed shouted, whirling around and crossing his arms in annoyance. When he got nothing but silence in return, he felt his eyebrow twitch as his hold on his temper vanished. He turned back around to give her a further tongue lashing, only to stop, stunned.

Taylor and curled up tighter in a ball, and her shoulders were shaking. Her face was impossible to see.

Immense guilt filled Ed and he approached Taylor quickly, "Hey, don't cry! I wasn't trying to-."

"Ed!" she finally managed to gasp out, raising her head. There were no tears, just a wide smile. "I'm not crying, you idiot, I'm laughing!" As if to prove it, more laughter shook her frame, but she was laughing too hard, so it stayed silent. The teenage alchemist stared at her in disbelief. Finally, her laughter worked its way out of her throat, and it echoed through the living room. Unable to help it, Ed joined in with her.

When they both managed to stop, he was resting his hands on his knees, catching his breath. "Don't scare me like that!" he scolded her half-heartedly, "Al and Crystal would have killed me if I made you cry!"

"Which one first?" Taylor joked, "If it was Crystal, you could still get away. Just raise the surface in front of her an inch or so and she'll go tumbling head over bum. Most likely, right into Al."

The image of their respective taller sibling and friend knocking each other over like dominos sent the two right back into fits of laughter.

"Okay, now I want to do that just to see if that will actually happen," Ed chuckled. "In spite of the fact that we'd both probably pay dearly for pulling a stunt like that, it would be funny just to watch."

"Hey, as long as we can outrun them, we're good," Taylor offered with a small smirk before she cocked her head and looked at Ed speculatively. "Actually, nix that. I don't have to outrun Crys and Al; I just have to run faster than you."

Surprisingly, Ed didn't blow up at the comment as he gave Taylor a deadpan look.

"Last time I checked, Al wasn't a bear," he observed dryly before he grinned knowingly and shrugged. "Now, your friend however… she's not a bear, but the term wildcat definitely comes to mind."

Taylor immediately burst into peals of laughter as she clapped her hand over her mouth in an attempt to ward off the sudden attack of the giggles, her shoulders shaking as she snickered loudly.

"Crystal's no wildcat; she's a cougar!" she proclaimed in between snickers, and Ed completely lost it at that. Within seconds, both of them had descended back into hilarity once again, and they stayed that way for a long time.


End file.
